Clothing that glows
Winga
MrSouth Africa Icrontian
Philips have come up with light-emitting fabrics, called Lumalive, that allow everyday garments or soft furnishings to light up with colorful patterns or animated displays.
Lumalive fabrics incorporate arrays of LED pixels mounted on a flexible lightweight substrate. Each pixel contains closely spaced red, green and blue LEDs. The light intensity of these LEDs can be varied in order to produce any desired color. Layers of translucent material covering the LEDs allow the display of daylight-visible colored patterns, dynamic images, short text messages or even full color animations.
The panel is connected via a waterproof connector, to a compact control unit weighing approximately 150 grams, that contains the control electronics and battery pack. Based around an ARM microprocessor and 256 MB of flash memory for content storage, the control unit allows the display of animated graphics sequences of up to ten minutes. The Li-ion battery in the control unit typically powers a single Lumalive panel for three to four hours, depending on the type of visuals displayed.
In furniture, the control unit can be powered from a standard AC plug adapter and up to ten panels can be inter-linked without the need for additional control electronics.
The material is resistant to rain, snow or liquid spills. For hand, machine or dry-cleaning, the panels and their drive electronics/batteries can be removed from garments or furniture before cleaning and simply replaced afterwards.
The Windows-based PC software interfaces with the USB connector on the control unit. Animated graphics, images or scrolling text messages can be uploaded. The unit can also be connected to a GSM module, allowing pre-loaded content to be triggered via SMS messages.
Philips has yet to announce pricing or retail partners for its Lumalive fabric technology.
Lumalive fabrics incorporate arrays of LED pixels mounted on a flexible lightweight substrate. Each pixel contains closely spaced red, green and blue LEDs. The light intensity of these LEDs can be varied in order to produce any desired color. Layers of translucent material covering the LEDs allow the display of daylight-visible colored patterns, dynamic images, short text messages or even full color animations.
The panel is connected via a waterproof connector, to a compact control unit weighing approximately 150 grams, that contains the control electronics and battery pack. Based around an ARM microprocessor and 256 MB of flash memory for content storage, the control unit allows the display of animated graphics sequences of up to ten minutes. The Li-ion battery in the control unit typically powers a single Lumalive panel for three to four hours, depending on the type of visuals displayed.
In furniture, the control unit can be powered from a standard AC plug adapter and up to ten panels can be inter-linked without the need for additional control electronics.
The material is resistant to rain, snow or liquid spills. For hand, machine or dry-cleaning, the panels and their drive electronics/batteries can be removed from garments or furniture before cleaning and simply replaced afterwards.
The Windows-based PC software interfaces with the USB connector on the control unit. Animated graphics, images or scrolling text messages can be uploaded. The unit can also be connected to a GSM module, allowing pre-loaded content to be triggered via SMS messages.
Philips has yet to announce pricing or retail partners for its Lumalive fabric technology.
0