Color-changing Chromosonic textiles react to heat and sound

Judit Eszter Karpati, a Budapest-based textile designer, wanted to further blur the fading boundaries between the digital realm and physical world.

Karpati was specifically interested in exploring the relationship between technology and textile arts, which is how Chromosonic was born. The avant-garde fabric uses Karpati’s out-of-the-box technology dubbed “Electronic Programmable Textile Interface,” which enables it to become more sensitive to heat and sound, and to react by producing colorful shifting patterns.

Like a chameleon, the textile alters its patterns based on its surroundings, which is made possible by an [Atmel based] Arduino board, a 12V power supply and nearly 20 custom PCBs. These components control four industrial 24V DC power supplies that are responsible for heating the two moving textile displays — each of which are woven with nichrome wires, screenprinted with thermochromatic dye, and pre-programmed with Karpati’s patterns.

When the power supplies are activated, the wires quickly heat up and the the thermochromatic dyes react to the change in color, ranging from black and blue to white and red. Aside from heat, the textile will also respond to pressure.

Learn more about Chromosonic by checking out the project’s official page here. Interested in chameleon-like clothing? You’ll want to read this, too.