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Researchers thread the world's first touchscreen into a garment - Consumer & Gadgets - Hi Tech & Innovation

The fibers support the functions early generations of smartphones could perform. The 96-by-54-pixel display can run a calculator, show a photo gallery, play a video, work as a compass, respond to voice commands, receive images over Bluetooth, as well as read and display body temperature. Credit: National University of Singapore

Researchers at the National University of Singapore's College of Design and Engineering (CDE) have developed a fiber that functions as pixels and senses touch at the same time, integrating 54 of them into a sleeve to create the world's first touchscreen built into a garment.

The sleeve displays images and video, responds to finger presses and connects wirelessly to other devices, yet stays as washable, breathable and flexible as ordinary clothing. The team's invention enables the creation of garments that act as a direct interface to a wearer's health data and their digital devices, with no rigid screen involved.

The screens that we are familiar with, such as those on phones and laptops, typically present graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on flat, rigid panels that display information and enable interaction. Textiles, woven from one-dimensional fibers, have never matched this capability. A full-color, touch-sensitive display that can be threaded like yarn was, until now, out of reach.

"What made this possible was our ability to construct the GUI system from electronic building blocks in fiber form—similar to traditional yarn, but with the sophisticated electronic functionality built directly into the fibers," said assistant professor Khudiyev.

The team, led by assistant professor Tural Khudiyev from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at CDE, published their findings in Nature. 

Introducing the Garment GUI. Credit: NUS

Interconnecting thousands of chips along a thread

To build a fiber-enabled garment display, the NUS team developed a programmable method that creates connection points along tiny, insulated wires exactly where each microchip needs them. A laser exposes these locations, while controlled surface wetting guides molten solder to bond only at the programmed points. This enabled the team to integrate more than 5,000 chips through over 20,000 electrical connections.

The strip of interconnected digital LEDs was then integrated into a multilayer fiber using a thermal drawing approach, which allows precise formation of the touch-sensitive and pixel layers within a thread just a millimeter thick and 10 meters long. A layer beneath the LEDs senses touch—pressing the fiber completes a circuit, and the signal reveals exactly where your finger landed so the nearest pixel lights up.

"A fiber has a one-dimensional, axially symmetric geometry, which makes it difficult to build complex circuitry using approaches developed for conventional two-dimensional electronics," added Khudiyev. "We overcame this limitation through a new interconnection architecture, which enables thousands of microelectronic devices to be integrated and interconnected along a fiber."

A layer beneath the LEDs senses touch, lighting up the nearest pixel when the fiber is pressed. Credit: National University of Singapore

Beyond the touchscreen: Wear your apps on your sleeve

In the team's prototype, 54 pixel fibers, each carrying 96 LEDs, were threaded into the forearm of a sleeve to form a 96-by-54-pixel display measuring 168 mm by 105 mm, refreshing 30 frames per second with 8-bit color depth. Each fiber has its own control channel, so a fault in one line leaves its neighbors working normally, and the system can register several touches at once.

Alongside the pixel fibers, the team integrated peripheral fibers made the same way, carrying a microphone, a speaker and sensors that track movement, find magnetic north, measure temperature and gauge how bright the surroundings are.

Together, the fibers support the functions early generations of smartphones could perform: run a calculator, show a photo gallery, play a video at 30 frames per second (25 frames per second with synchronized audio), work as a compass, respond to voice commands and receive images over Bluetooth. They can even rotate the screen and adjust brightness automatically. When positioned under the arm, the temperature-sensing fiber lets the sleeve read and display body temperature.

The garment still behaves like fabric. Light output and touch response were nearly unchanged after 50 detergent washes in a typical washing machine, and after 1,000 bends around a 5 mm radius. In addition, the built display is as breathable as cotton, polyester and denim, and stays within established safety limits for skin contact.

Clothing as an interface

Smaller microchips and thinner fibers, both compatible with the team's method, offer a route to sharper and larger displays. Furthermore, as the display and sensing elements sit along the length of the fiber, the thinner fibers can be knitted, woven and embroidered using standard industrial machines. The same technology could one day perform other functions such as tracking health signs and delivering touch-based feedback.

"Health care is one particularly promising application," said Khudiyev. "A garment could continuously collect physiological information through fiber-based sensors and allow the wearer to access and interact with that information directly through their clothing. Combined with artificial intelligence (AI), this could enable personalized health monitoring, feedback and assistance.

"Just as smartphones enabled applications that were difficult to imagine when they first appeared, garment GUIs could ultimately enable entirely new applications that do not yet exist."

What's next

The research team's next step is to push the textile touchscreen further—toward higher resolution, integrated sensing and on-device AI, bringing display, touch, sensing and intelligence together within the same textile platform.

This convergence could take the technology far beyond a wearable screen, toward clothing that understands both the wearer and their surroundings, providing information or interaction when and where needed.

The researchers are now developing a new interface between people and digital intelligence—one that extends beyond a device users carry to become a natural part of what they wear. 

Provided by National University of Singapore 

by National University of Singapore

edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan 

Source: Researchers thread the world's first touchscreen into a garment