Color Changing Fabric Turns You Into A Human Chameleon

Sure, the invisibility cloak that has been seen in numerous science fiction as well as fantasy movies have remained elusive, although there has been strides made in that department to date. How about a more innovative method of camouflage? Mother nature leads the way again in terms of inspiration with the chameleon coming into the picture, inspiring textile designer Judit Eszter Karpati to work on an experimental fabric which is capable of changing its color on the fly. How cool is that?

Taking a cue from the old T-shirts that hail all the way back from the 1980s that could change color according to your body temperature thanks to a conductive dye, Karpati’s material that is known as Chromosonic will also make use of the same kind of dye, except that the remainder of the color-changing process is far more technologically advanced.

Karpati’s idea will make use of nichrome wires that have been woven into the fabric itself, and these will be hooked up to an Arduino microcontroller. In turn, the Arduino controller is connected to a power supply. Whenever the wires get hot in response to sound, the temperature will change, hence affecting the color of the dye so that it can change, alongside altering its pattern, too. Will it be able to see a military application down the road? I would not bet against that.

Edwin Kee
Categories: General
Tags: Wearable Tech