Fully woven, smart display

Researchers have developed a 46-inch woven display with smart sensors, energy harvesting and storage integrated directly into the fabric. By integrating fibre-based electronics, photonic, sensing and energy functionalities, we can achieve a whole new class of smart devices and systems Luigi Occhipinti An international team of scientists have produced a fully woven smart textile display that integrates active electronic, sensing, energy and photonic functions. The functions are embedded directly into the fibres and yarns, which are manufactured using textile-based industrial processes. The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, say their approach could lead to applications that sound like sci-fi: curtains that are also TVs, energy-harvesting carpets, and interactive, self-powered clothing and fabrics. This is the first time that a scalable large-area complex system has been integrated into textiles using an entirely fibre-based manufacturing approach. Their results are reported . Despite recent progress in the development of smart textiles, their functionality, dimensions and shapes are limited by current manufacturing processes.