Research

This section provides an overview of background research that inspired and directed our thinking for this project.

Most of the current work in interactive fabrics concerns how to enable fabrics to display information, whether that display is emissive (LED) or transmissive (thermochromic). There seems to be general consensus that truly interactive fabric would be transmissive, such as the kind using a touch-screen surface as shown in our demonstration here. However, these technologies are still quite a few years away.

However, an investigation of current work with other flexible, natural materials (i.e., paper) provided us with a good foundation for imagining how interactive fabrics may look and act some day.


Emissive

Emissive fabrics use micro-LEDs that are literally sewn into the weave of a material, then typically powered by a small battery. Because emissive fabrics are backlit, they will glow to some degree, as shown in the images below. Emissive fabrics such as these are already in being employed by companies, such as Philips and others, in the production of T-Shirts, vests and pillows:




Transmissive

The interface design we used is not emissive, but transmissive: a kind of fabric display where the colors of the fabric themselves change. The result is a much softer display of information, much like the look that dyes and inks have upon textiles. What if these dyes and inks could change like pixels of a computer screen? That's how we envisioned the handbag. Transmissive fabrics such as these are very advanced, and in much more intial stages of development than emissive fabrics. While their presence in the design industry is quite rare, we did find inspiration from one project hosted by RISD, where thermochromic (heat-sensitive) inks were used in conjunction with condictive yarn to produce the effect of transmissive fabric.

Interactive

As discussed, interactive fabrics do not currently exist that can function in the ways we envisioned our handbag. However, certain studies of interactive paper seem to have promising results. Paper Four, a design consultancy, used developed electronically conductive inks that are sensitive to pressure. "Digital information is embedded in the
paper, and when it is touched, the information comes out via printed speakers," says Mikael Gulliksson, project leader the comprehensive research project. In theory, we envision that fabrics could be interactive by using similar methods and materials.