Philips says: Hey, what’s that LCD you’re wearing?

Would you think fashion industry is high-tech. Surely it keeps up with time, but I wouldn’t call it high-tech. Philips has a different opinion and patented a technology that allows displays to be embedded in clothes. We’re not talking about high contrast or 16.7 million colors screens, but rather primitive displays, which will serve goals like decorative or informative clothing accessories.

My call is that Philips hopes to create a way to display infos on clothes without altering their primary function, while fashion industry will use them to dress people even funkier that today. But let’s stick to facts and say a few words about what Philips did. They researched a fabric with conductive capabilities, so that you won’t feel any difference from a regular, display-less piece of cloth. This material can be printed or mounted with adhesive tape on the actual cloth, and can be split in multiple areas that can be controlled independently.

You can even create a matrix of pixels, which can be turned on or off. The fabric is furry, and by charging it electrostatic the furs repel from the surface of the material and get to stand vertically, revealing the color of the fabric surface. When turned off the furs lay down, almost covering the base of the fabric, generating a change in contrast, which is more evident if the fabric is more furry. Think of if as if you speak of the human body: the more hair you have the harder is to see the muscles.

To sum things up we will be able to display informations on certain places on our clothes, by generating a contrast between adjacent pixels (fabric areas, in this case). What’s interesting is that what Philips discovered is compatible with multiple type of fabrics: cotton, polyester, spandex or combinations. The only conditions is the conductive layer to be present.

Source: DailyTech