A team at the National University of Singapore (NUS), led by Professor Tural Khudiyev, has created a fibre that works both as pixels and as a touch sensor. By weaving 54 of these fibres into a sleeve, it produced the first touchscreen integrated into a garment. The work was published in Nature.
The display has 96 by 54 pixels, measures 168 by 105 millimetres, shows 30 frames per second and 8-bit colour. Each fibre carries 96 LEDs and the whole set combines more than 5,000 chips and 20,000 electrical connections. The thread is about 1 millimetre thick and 10 metres long.
After 50 detergent washes and 1,000 bends, light output and touch response were almost unchanged. The fabric breathes as well as cotton, polyester or denim and meets safety limits for skin contact.
The team now wants to raise the resolution and add sensors and artificial intelligence to the fabric itself. Health monitoring is one of the applications highlighted.
