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May 9, 2019

Color-Changing “Smart Thread” Turns Fabric into a Computerized Display

Posted by in category: computing

But who would wear clothes that double as a computer display? And why? And how would people respond to computerized clothes? The team explored these questions in in-depth research sessions with seventeen people, including five fashion designers.

At first the participants were put off by thinking of Ebb as another computer screen. “I don’t want to wear a screen,” said one participant. “There’s enough glare in my life as it is,” said another. The idea made them recall past experiences of light-emitting clothing: “blinking Christmas sweaters, children’s sneakers that lit up when they walked, or light-up visors they might get at carnivals and amusement parks.”

But Ebb isn’t a light-up screen; it’s just fabric that changes color. Feeling the fabric samples changed their responses. One participant said that the fabric “seems a lot more tactile and something like cloth rather than plasticky… I think it’s just more intimate and easier to like.”

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