Development of an Integrated, Programmable, Non-Emissive Textile Display Material

Abstract

Textile displays are a commonly investigated topic in the field of interactive textiles research. Textile displays allow various display technologies to be embedded into the textile to enhance the textile to display images and animations on the textile. This thesis explores the detailed engineering of non-light-emissive displays using heat sensitive thermochromic inks. In non-light-emissive textile displays, the display is more subtle and ambient, and has a natural form of color change. Thus, to actuate the thermochromic inks, we introduce the use of peltier semiconductor elements along with a fine tuned closed loop temperature control system. The control system accurately controls the temperature of the thermochromic ink textiles using the rapid heating and cooling capabilities of peltier elements. Thus, the core novelty of this work lies within the robust, fast and active controllability of the color of fabric as opposed to previous research, which is presented through a wide range of prototypes and detailed technical analysis.