Fibers@MIT, a research group at MIT, has developed a digital fibre with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. It could well be setting Moore’s law in motion for computational fabrics. But a lot depends on market acceptability and use-cases for this technology. Let’s have a look at what changes this innovation can bring in e-textiles.
It isn’t new that human beings have been tinkering with naturally occurring materials to produce clothing or wearables. Flax is known to grow naturally in wild, and was domesticated more than 8,000 years ago, while it was being used for its fibre even before that. And the inherent technology to process these fibres into yarn, fabric and garments has not changed substantially, while how we use them has undergone tremendous change over the last century. Traditionally, clothing was only used as protection against our natural surroundings (mostly for temperature regulation) and then more recently for fashion and aesthetics. With almost universal presence of clothing and textiles in our daily lives, it became increasingly more obvious that further opportunities were available to tinker with textile and clothing materials. Blending of different fibres was an early and significant technological change bringing multiple characteristics of different materials into one, however, that didn’t alter the utility of textile materials beyond clothing, industrial use and aesthetics.
While the conventional utility continues to be the most significant, what has transpired over the years in the textile sector, is its conjunction with electronics, chemistry and technology which can make textiles much more dynamic than just blending. The earliest such combinations were made by designers like Diana Dew who were experimenting back in the 1960s with LED lights fitted into clothing, with a battery pack attached to it. While such LED fitted clothes may have become things of the past, the more sophisticated versions available today are luminous fabrics (fibre optic fabric) which can emanate different colors using optic fibres woven into synthetic fibres. While, this has mere aesthetic value, other smart or functional textiles today provide other use-cases as well.