A simple movement may be all it takes in the future to change the color of the clothes you're wearing, according to a research team that has created a fabric with an embedded tiny camera that changes colors using artificial intelligence.
This technology can help reduce the amount of clothes that end up in the bins, as it will offer the world more color options for the same garment, notes the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence in Design (AiDLab).
The fabric, which is woven with polymer optical fibers (POFs) and textile-based yarns, can be illuminated in a range of different hues.
It turns deep blue if someone gives it a thumbs up in approval. It changes to pink if you form a heart or turns green if you make the OK gesture.
It can also change color via an app on the phone, and AI algorithms help the camera distinguish differences in each user's gestures.
Professor Jin Tan, who works at the School of Fashion and Textiles at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and leads the research team, pointed out that POFs are made of polymethyl methacrylate, which is recyclable, and that the fabric's structure allows for easy separation of polymeric optical fibers from the yarns for recycling.
