By creating a soft polymer-based fibre that can be woven into fabric that has electrical properties depending on where it is touched, now that means fabric can treated like a touch screen on a mobile phone. Maksim Skorobogatiy has led the research into reproducing a Smartphone experience in textile form, and the team is looking into applications where non-invasive control can be woven into the fabric instead of using buttons.

The starting point of the technology consisted of rolling conducting and insulating polymer films around a copper wire to create a 2cm wide cylindrical capacitor. The cylinder is then heated to 200 °C and stretched out until it is a soft, elastic fibre 0.9mm in diameter. This results in an easy to use fibre even in conventional weaving processes. This was proved when the fibres were woven into a 10cm by 15cm piece of material, which when touched or swiped with a finger modified the fabric’s ability to store charge. A software was then written to pinpoint where the fabric had been touched, meaning that this could be used to control air-conditioning or the volume on the radio.

Another great property of this fibre is that it is very easily cleaned, making an ideal material for everyday use in the home or in a car. BMW already has plans to install touch screen fabric in future models. These images are of BMW’s ‘Vision Connected Drive’ concept car shown at Geneva motor show in 2011, that has a display that appears digitally on the windscreen with touch sensitive fabric below the screen to allow the device to be easily turned on and interacted with.