The Animated Quilt (AQ) is a dynamic quilt whose square swatches change color over time. This electronic textile can display different patterns and change from one pattern to another, producing a smooth transition between different designs and images. There is a conscious effort to ensure that the aesthetics of the display mirror the soft qualities of the construction. AQ changes in a slow and contemplative way, referencing the process of weaving, knitting and other textile construction techniques. Resulting imagery blurs the boundaries between digital image and textile surface. The aesthetic of the patterns and the animation references the concept of pixel, traditional quilting and embroidery practice, as well as emerging research in visual display technology. The slowness and subtlety of the piece references and is critical of the fact that current technological development is largely focused on speed and hard edges. The very concept of a textile display is innovative and challenging in a field where such devices are traditionally hard, square and emissive devices. Textiles, on the other hand, have a uniquely intimate relationship with the human body. Designers of electronic textiles need to focus on personal expression and the social, cultural and economic history of textiles instead of striving to replace (or “augment”) human experience. In a time that is more and more dominated by the visual image and the cult of communication, this textile will also have the ability to display our needs and desires, as well as our artworks.
How it Works:
This functionality is accomplished through the development of a good intuition and understanding of the potential and limitations of electronics as well as the properties of conductive threads and textile constructions. Using traditional construction techniques, together with some unusual materials, the AQ deploys a simple technology for non-emissive, color-change textiles. It is a quilted “soft screen”. The materials we used include conductive threads and fabrics, thermochromic inks, and custom electronics components. The goal is to achieve a seamless integration of technology into the tradition of textile design and fabrication techniques.
Conductive threads
Conductive threads are either spun or twisted and incorporate some amount of conductive material (such as strands of silver or stainless steel) to enable electrical conductivity. These yarns can have various electro-mechanical properties. They can be woven, knit, or felted together with non-conductive yarns to create the substrate for an electronic textile. Recently, the heating of fabric using conductive yarns and threads woven into the textile has been demonstrated for the purpose of keeping people warm. We use conductive threads in two different ways: (1) to embroider a specific pattern on the surface of each pixel to allow us to heat it and change its color and (2) to transmit electricity from the controller board to each pixel.
Thermochromic pigments
Thermochromic materials have different color states at different temperatures. They literally change color when heated. They are an example of a non-emissive “active material”, together with photochromics, electrochromics, or shape memory alloys. Nonemissive materials are materials that do not emit light. Thermochromic leucodye materials are especially interesting because they can be engineered to change from a specific color to a clear state at an arbitrary temperature between 13°F (-25°C) and 150°F (66°C). A wide range of colors is available and unexpected color changes can be obtained by combining thermochromic inks with regular ones. By mixing inks that change at different temperatures, a more complex effect can be achieved. The inks can be applied with a number of printing processes, including screen-printing.
One major issue discovered over the time it took to create this piece is the relatively short life expectancy of thermochromic inks when exposed to natural light. UV radiation deteriorates the pigments over a period of months and the inks become less saturated and start losing their color-change abilities.
In existing products, color change is activated by body heat. AQ, on the other hand, uses resistive heating to create the change in temperature. We allow current to flow through embroidered conductive threads that have some degree of resistance. Resistance is the measure of how much an object impedes the flow of electricity. If we allow current to flow through a resistive material, the current will lose energy as it struggles to get through the material and the current's lost energy will become thermal energy in the material. The higher an object's resistance, the less current will flow through it.
Control electronics
AQ has 100 fabric pixels arranged in a 10 by 10 matrix. Each piece of fabric is individually addressable (with conductive threads) and can be controlled to slowly change color from black to white and back again, passing through a whole range of grayscale values. Each color change is programmed in the custom electronics board or controlled in real time when the display is connected to a desktop computer through the serial port. Control electronics are necessary to drive the textile display. The term refers to a printed circuit board (PCB) with various electronic components that is used to send power to different areas of the electronic textile in order to activate the thermochromic inks.
Conductive threads
Conductive threads are either spun or twisted and incorporate some amount of conductive material (such as strands of silver or stainless steel) to enable electrical conductivity. These yarns can have various electro-mechanical properties. They can be woven, knit, or felted together with non-conductive yarns to create the substrate for an electronic textile. Recently, the heating of fabric using conductive yarns and threads woven into the textile has been demonstrated for the purpose of keeping people warm. We use conductive threads in two different ways: (1) to embroider a specific pattern on the surface of each pixel to allow us to heat it and change its color and (2) to transmit electricity from the controller board to each pixel.
Thermochromic pigments
Thermochromic materials have different color states at different temperatures. They literally change color when heated. They are an example of a non-emissive “active material”, together with photochromics, electrochromics, or shape memory alloys. Nonemissive materials are materials that do not emit light. Thermochromic leucodye materials are especially interesting because they can be engineered to change from a specific color to a clear state at an arbitrary temperature between 13°F (-25°C) and 150°F (66°C). A wide range of colors is available and unexpected color changes can be obtained by combining thermochromic inks with regular ones. By mixing inks that change at different temperatures, a more complex effect can be achieved. The inks can be applied with a number of printing processes, including screen-printing.
One major issue discovered over the time it took to create this piece is the relatively short life expectancy of thermochromic inks when exposed to natural light. UV radiation deteriorates the pigments over a period of months and the inks become less saturated and start losing their color-change abilities.
In existing products, color change is activated by body heat. AQ, on the other hand, uses resistive heating to create the change in temperature. We allow current to flow through embroidered conductive threads that have some degree of resistance. Resistance is the measure of how much an object impedes the flow of electricity. If we allow current to flow through a resistive material, the current will lose energy as it struggles to get through the material and the current's lost energy will become thermal energy in the material. The higher an object's resistance, the less current will flow through it.
Control electronics
AQ has 100 fabric pixels arranged in a 10 by 10 matrix. Each piece of fabric is individually addressable (with conductive threads) and can be controlled to slowly change color from black to white and back again, passing through a whole range of grayscale values. Each color change is programmed in the custom electronics board or controlled in real time when the display is connected to a desktop computer through the serial port. Control electronics are necessary to drive the textile display. The term refers to a printed circuit board (PCB) with various electronic components that is used to send power to different areas of the electronic textile in order to activate the thermochromic inks.
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