10Meters News Service

December 16, 2002 – Looking for fashion with impact? How about a ski jacket that doubles as an MP3 player? Actually, the jacket shown here does more than play music. A patch on its sleeve controls the music via a revolutionary new "electronic" textile called Softswitch.

Burton Jacket (Softswitch photo)

Manufactured by Burton Snowboards of Los Angeles, the jacket with a built-in Sony Walkman is the first retail version of "smart" fabrication development by the Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand (WRONZ) and Peratech Ltd, a UK-based electronic materials company.

The research partners, who recently formed the jointly owned Softswitch, Inc. that produces the new material that they term "intelligent interior surfaces," say the technology could find its way into everything from a tablecloth that can play music to light switches embedded in curtains and carpets.

In this case, the sleeve-based control patch in the Burton jacket is, in effect, a fabric-based version of the common plastic remote control. There are no wires connecting the patch to the Walkman sewn into the jacket's pocket; instead, it is the material itself that delivers the signal needed to change songs or volume levels.

"As well as wearable electronics, we have intelligent interior surfaces which can be used to control lighting, heating, security systems and other electronic devices in the home or office," said Softswitch's Technology Manager, Steve Leftly.

Other Softswitch developments include musical and QWERTY keyboards and computer game controls that "can simply be rolled up and put away in drawer when not required," according to Leftly. Also on the agenda: applications in the medical and automotive markets.

The technology behind Softswitch is a combination of metallic particles coated with a very thin layer of polymer. The polymer – the basis of man-made synthetics such as rayon – acts as the insulator until pressure is applied to the keys on the Softswitch panel.

Since the polymer coating is so thin and the material so flexible, the underlying electrical properties can be accessed to change a track on the jacket's MP3 player, change the volume or turn the system on or off, depending on the pressure applied to the corresponding key on the panel.

Softswitch is also being hailed as an environmentally friendly addition to electronic convenience: unlike plastic remotes and keyboards, Softswitch and other similar fabric technologies are recyclable.

For more information, visit Softswitch, Ltd., at www.softswitch.co.uk.