With a simple tap on our smartphone, you can control a lot of things around us — whether it’s the music playing from your Bluetooth speaker, the Netflix show on your TV, or even your air conditioning unit. But what if you could also use your phone to change the look of your outfit? That’s where ChroMorphous technology comes in — an active fabric that changes color controlled by the user.
Developed by a team of research scientists at the College of Optics and Photonics (known as CREOL) at the University of Central Florida, the new technology allows users to control and change the fabric pattern using a mobile app.
Behind the tech
CREOL claims the technology is different from “color changing” fabrics currently on the market. Instead of the LED tricks emitting light, the fabric physically changes color due to the fiber itself. Produced in Melbourne, Florida, the fibers are created from raw materials using textile fiber spinning machines. After sending the fibers to the mills, they are woven using common industrial-scale weaving machines, and then the fabric is sent back to the CREOL team. While the fabric is made with traditional machines, the machine is hacked to run a microwire inside each thread so that running a current raises the local temperature slightly — enough to make the thermochromic pigment change color. Basically, the pigments embedded in the thread react to a change in temperature and then change color.
“When you think about anything you work with on a daily basis, whether it’s the way you interact with people [or] buy things, it’s infused with technology… The goal now is to take fabrics and textiles and garments and say let’s infuse it with technology,” Dr. Ayman Abouraddy, professor of optics and photonics at UFC, told Digital Trends, ” I want to be able to communicate with him, I want to tell him how to look, and nothing like that has happened yet. Changing the color is one thing, but our vision is to do much more than that.”
At first glance, the fabric looks no different than what you would see on a regular canvas bag or even on shoes. Running our hand over the sample, we couldn’t tell that it had any special technology built into it other than the battery attached to the side. But we’ve noticed that it’s rougher compared to fabric like cotton or polyester, which can play a big role in whether or not a consumer decides to buy an item to wear. But the team explained that this is because of the larger thread, which makes it feel rough. CREOL is currently working on producing thinner fibers to make the material smoother and more flexible. We hope that eventually consumers won’t be able to tell the difference between the tech fabric and the regular fabric currently on the market.
“Even Google tried this, and they went the usual route of weaving metal wire inside clothing. Here, the reason why it looks so natural is [because] the wire is inside the fiber, so you never touch it, you never come into contact with it,” Abouraddy explained. While Google may not yet have found a way to incorporate color-changing technology into clothing, the company recently partnered with Levi’s to create a wearable electronic jacket. Currently available for purchase, users can control things like music playback and navigation with simple gestures while wearing a denim jacket.
With collective experience in fiber optic manufacturing technology, the team at CREOL recognized that this technology was not new, but did not go beyond scientific publications. While CREOL claims ChroMorphous is the first of its kind, fashion designer Julianna Bass incorporated a similar concept into her clothing line in September. Although not controlled via the app, the technology includes thermochromic inks that allow consumers to trigger a color change using a soft button. It has yet to hit the market.
Sitting with ChroMorphous
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Once we set up the app on our iPhone, we could watch the fabric go from solid to pattern with the simple push of a button. While the interface is still in its infancy, the ChroMorphous team is working on developing an app that gives the user full control over the patterns they can choose from. Currently the app connects to your phone via Wi-Fi, but there are plans to add Bluetooth in the future. Once incorporated into designer products, the researchers hope consumers will use it the same way they would a Fitbit or Apple Watch — by purchasing the product, downloading the app, and taking advantage.
“We hope that in the future people will assume that clothing can do more than just protect [you] from the environment. You assume it can do more – so you put on an item of clothing and then you look at your phone and see what’s available to do that” Abouraddy said, “We carry phones anyway – what’s happened is they’ve put extra things in the phone… the camera so now you don’t have to carry a camera. … We wear clothes anyway, so we add functionality to them.”
After opening the app, we had the option to add plain, striped or random. We chose the option to add stripes to the fabric and watched as every other stripe went from dark green to light green. But each strip can be individually controlled depending on the programming — meaning the team can instead let users select specific strips to change color through the app. With the random option, the colors of the bars will change over time.
As for choosing your own color options, CREOL explained that it’s not yet possible — the technology doesn’t exist yet. For now, the color sets you can choose from are set at the factory when the fabric is manufactured, and the app will then tell you which colors are available to choose from. But the team expressed that they are working on finding a way to give consumers the option to choose an arbitrary color.
Given that the piece of fabric from the demo was larger than what you’d see on a bag or backpack, it took about 45 seconds to completely switch to the new pattern. But the change can be faster or slower depending on how much power you have in the battery. If you need to change the pattern or color quickly, you will use more energy on the battery than if you let it change more slowly.
When we watched the big bag switch from solid colors to stripes, we originally thought how much money we’d save if we no longer bought more than one item we love in multiple colors. While changing the design of the fabric or color doesn’t completely change the look of the bag, it gives consumers the opportunity to get even more out of it than they would otherwise — knowing that they’ll be able to incorporate it into more outfits by customizing it. It can also help during those rare but realistic occasions where you’re wearing the same outfit or item as someone else in the room.
The fabric is also washable — as long as you remove the detachable battery and connector, you’ll be good to go. But CREOL still recommends hanging it to dry instead of using a dryer. If there are creases, you can iron them with a steam iron.
Carrying ChroMorphous technology
We were excited at the prospect of being able to switch up our wardrobe without having to buy extra clothes, but it left us with one question – where do you put the battery when you’re wearing fabric? When it comes to a bag or backpack, the battery will fit in the inner pouch or pocket. The team wasn’t so sure when it came to garments like a dress, suggesting it could fit on a bra strap, but expressing that tests should be done based on comfort. Then there is the possibility that you want an even bigger battery to quickly power a large item. Questions like these are what will most likely keep ChroMorphous technology from hitting the consumer market until next year, while the team works to eliminate consumer pain points.
“Somebody had to take that step and bridge that gap between these scientific demonstrations and the actual large-scale … it’s now a real technology, not a scientific achievement. And our goal is … for designers — the actual manufacturers of textile-based products for the market — to be aware of that and [think] to incorporate it into their product,” said Abourdaddy.
While the future of ChroMorphous technology is still unclear, CREOL knows one thing for sure — it’s officially ready for designers to start using it to produce clothing, accessories and more. The technology is currently scalable to mass production levels and doesn’t stop at clothing and accessories — it can also be used for interior design such as furniture and fixed installations.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn