Fashion has always been a canvas for design and expression, but this digital dress is literally a canvas; the experimental wearable textile can display patterns and images just like a low resolution digital screen. From software company Adobe’s Project Primrose abstract:
“Recent advances in smart materials have enabled displays to move beyond planar surfaces into the fabric of everyday life. We propose reflective light-diffuser modules for non-emissive flexible display systems. Our system leverages reflective-backed polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC), an electroactive material commonly used in smart window applications. This low-power non-emissive material can be cut to any shape, and dynamically diffuses light.”
Created with small scales or petals that are programmed with Adobe software, the futuristic ‘fabric’ can be used for clothing, handbags, curtains, furniture, and endless other surfaces.
Research Scientist Christine Dierk and her team designed and programmed everything about it. Dierk also stitched it together. She wore and demonstrated the interactive dress during the Adobe MAX 2023 Sneaks:
Imagine a dress with even smaller components, a textile with more ‘pixels’ that can display high resolution patterns, colors, photos, videos, animations, downloaded designs created by a favorite designer, or your original artwork, a la Animal Crossing‘s Custom Designs.
Here’s a 2022 video preview from SIGCHI:
What would you create with this technology?
Watch these handpicked videos next:
• Daniel Rozin’s Mechanical Mirrors
• OmniFibers: Soft robotic fabric that can sense, react to, and model human movement
• Exploded Views at SFMoMA
• What can you make with CalTech’s smart chain mail?
• Ferrolic – A ferrofluid clock prototype by Zelf Koelman
via Design Boom.
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