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Displays Technology

Adobe Unveils Dress That Can Change Its Pattern On the Fly (futurism.com) 68

Posted by BeauHD from the what-will-they-think-of-next dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Adobe has unveiled a sparkling, interactive dress -- and got the research scientist who created it to model the high-tech couture. Video of the dress debut shows researcher Christine Dierk wearing the slinky strapless number that, upon first glance, looks like the average sequined cocktail dress. With the click of a handheld remote, however, the dress began to shift patterns like something out of a fashion-forward science fiction film. Created under Adobe's "Project Primrose" initiative, this "digital dress," as Dierk described it for the audience at Adobe's MAX conference last week, "brings fabric to life."

"Unlike traditional clothing, which is static, Primrose allows me to refresh my look in a moment," the Adobe scientist said, demonstrating the clothing's capabilities by having its colors go from light to dark in an instant. The digital dress patterns can also, as Dierks demonstrated, be animated, and will even respond to movement -- though that last feature appeared glitchy and didn't work at first. The researcher-turned-model also told the hosts of her portion of the convention that she not only designed the dress with the help of her team at Adobe, but also stitched it herself.

While the specs of this particular smart garment haven't been published, the high-tech sequins used for smaller Project Primrose offerings, a handbag and a canvas, were described by Dierks and her co-researchers last year in an article presented at a tech conference. As the article explains, those "sequins" are actually "reflective light-diffuser modules" that use reflective-backed polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (PDLC), which are most often used in smart lighting. Technically, all those sequins are tiny screens.
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Adobe Unveils Dress That Can Change Its Pattern On the Fly More

Adobe Unveils Dress That Can Change Its Pattern On the Fly

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  • I watched the whole video hoping she'd eventually switch the dress to transparent!

  • lol did someone forget what business they are in? Desperate times Adobe? Branching out? Maybe you can make some color change people while you're at it?

    I get it's probably not about the dress, and if it isn't then wtf is the application? But hey, "GEE WHIZZ".....

  • I didn't even know they called zipper closures this for dresses, but it is a small area to have a screen built into and might draw unwanted attention.

  • Flicker cladding! (Score:4)

    by swm ( 171547 ) <swmcd@world.std.com> on Wednesday October 18, 2023 @11:32PM (#63936117) Homepage

    props to Rudy Rucker

  • Illusions are annoying (Score:4, Funny)

    by LindleyF ( 9395567 ) on Thursday October 19, 2023 @12:24AM (#63936155)
    So they made one that's literally both gold/white AND blue/black.

  • Getting that through airport security should be fun ...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by stooo ( 2202012 )

      Fun for the guys doing the control, yes. Not for the person wearing it :)

    • Re:Yup (Score:4, Informative)

      by solidraven ( 1633185 ) on Thursday October 19, 2023 @02:40AM (#63936273)
      As a person who's had the "pleasure" of taking prototype electronic devices as carry-on onto flights, it's actually not that bad. Just remove the batteries and they usually don't care too much at most airports, they're often more interested in what it is/does out of curiosity than anything else. Just avoid the US/TSA...

  • May eventually be interesting (many years away) (Score:5, Informative)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Thursday October 19, 2023 @01:18AM (#63936197)

    But wearing that (likely very uncomfortable) big, heavy, thick, many-layered plastic thing is probably not high on most people's list. And it really was a one-trick pony - I was expecting a wider range of display options rather than just changing a bunch of 1-inch squares into a small subset of colors.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      We have been able to install things like LEDs in clothing for a long time now, but it's never taken off. I thought there might be interest due to Star Wars, where a lot of characters seem to be wearing tech that has little LED displays, but it seems not.

    • Wearable electronics have always suffered from a lack of creativity on the part of the people who actually build them. Frankly, the most impressive thing about this dress is that scale mail is "in". You go, girl! Conquer Ctesiphon! Show those Sasanians you mean business!

      • There is a YouTube video of a Las Vegas performance by Blue Man Group with Venus Hum performing "I Feel Love" (Donna Summer) where singer Annette Strean is wearing a dress with wide stripes of a single color each that light in time with the music. It's a bit dim, and I'd guess is electroluminescent, and I believe had a stagehand wrangling a cable. This was maybe 2003. Theatrically, it worked well enough.

    • I was expecting a wider range of display options rather than just changing a bunch of 1-inch squares into a small subset of colors.

      It's the first concept so naturally it would have limited options.

      However, one thing no one on here has mentioned is this only changes the front. You'll notice when she is shown from the side, the back of the dress stays white/off white. Which means these squares can be readily damaged so you can't sit on them (yet). Which raises the next question: if one of these squares is

      • This isnâ(TM)t new either, many people have made similar things going back years with anything from flexible LCD to LED and the literature on creating medical sensors and displays in clothing goes back even further.

        Flexible displays were invented by Xerox PARC in the 70s or 80s with similar promises. The problem with clothing is humans are wet, corrosive and dirty creatures and electronics donâ(TM)t like soap and water.

    • This will not get worse over time. Prototypes are like that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by znrt ( 2424692 )

      i was expecting actual smart textile too. this is clearly just a proof of concept but it's pretty lame at that, and looks like a walking joke. stuffing some sophisticated christmas lights on top of a person is not making a smart dress. you can clearly see by how she acts and moves that the damn thing has to be extremely uncomfortable and impractical. even with the same approach probably any diy home project could do better than that.

    • But wearing that (likely very uncomfortable) big, heavy, thick, many-layered plastic thing is probably not high on most people's list. And it really was a one-trick pony - I was expecting a wider range of display options rather than just changing a bunch of 1-inch squares into a small subset of colors.

      I also see a real problem. Guys will get their chops busted for looking at the dress. It is the old "my eyes are up here, mister!" problem. Kind of a weird thing that we simultaneously have women trying to draw attention to them while if they succeed they'll shame the person if the person looking is male.

  • Given a video input from the other direction, which was relayed to these micro-screens could a wearer of an entire suit made of this material appear invisible to a viewer. Predator style?
    • Not with this technology, but such things have been proposed and prototyped. The thing is, it's completely useless in a modern military context unless if it also operates outside of the visible light spectrum. Additionally, unless if you're standing close to the object behind you, or far from the observer, depth perception is going to screw you over big time.
      • And it would only work in one viewing direction.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        The thing is, it's completely useless in a modern military context unless if it also operates outside of the visible light spectrum.

        I would think that depends on the price tag. No you probably can't make an effective invisibility cloak that is going to render you invisible to the enemy. Probably not even relatively unsophisticated enemies. - The sniper with the infrared enhanced scope will see you. The security cameras will still spot your infiltration teams and operators, so with the magnetometers.. I doubt you will be able to make anything invisible to active detection schemes like lidar or millimeter wave.

        On the other hand some k

        • Yeah, but human nature is very much to pick out little things that are "wrong". This is why we still have human guards making rounds instead of camera systems, a human will go "mhhh, that looks a bit odd, let's investigate". And if you know your enemy has this type of technology you'll just shoot instead of going closer to check it out. I agree, it sounds cool, but I see serious issues deploying this versus just stashing a few cans of paint in the back of a truck and telling the grunts to get to work if we

  • Just kidding. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ledow ( 319597 )

    Target audience is presumably rich geeky women who want to attract attention and carry around a battery/computer. Well done, guys, I'm sure that huge market will be beating a path to your door.

    Or you could have made a T-shirt that everyone could use and you would easily see geeks hanging out with their favourite games streaming (even in monochrome) on their chest.

    This is basically a large collection of small LCD panels, in effect. We could have done it 20+ years ago. The problem is that nobody actually r

    • Or you could have made a T-shirt that everyone could use and you would easily see geeks hanging out with their favourite games streaming (even in monochrome) on their chest.

      Geeks starring at your chest? That's definitely going to happen if you have any.

      The problem is that nobody actually really wants computers in their clothes. We've seen people trying to sell that dead horse for decades now.

      On your clothes, on your wrist, in your pocket, there is much of a difference?

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by ledow ( 319597 )

        I have to wash my clothes.

        I rarely wash my smartphone or (very old fashioned concept, even in the era of smartwatches) wristwatch.

        So either it's an accessory that you have remove and reattached to "real" clothing, or it needs to be washable (which I highly doubt).

  • Hmm (Score:3)

    by Stephen Chadfield ( 7971 ) on Thursday October 19, 2023 @04:21AM (#63936367) Homepage

    This is truly the age of miracles.

  • Crude, ridid, cheap-looking (due to reflectance properties), with a low-resolution grid pattern and 1-bit color
    • Also, please do notice that the lighting is very rigged for this dress to look good. Look at her skin above the dress. No adult with flesh and bone looks that smooth. There are virtually no subtle shadows on her skin besides the ones cast from her head.

      • Also, please do notice that the lighting is very rigged for this dress to look good. Look at her skin above the dress. No adult with flesh and bone looks that smooth. There are virtually no subtle shadows on her skin besides the ones cast from her head.

        Report to HR mister. If you were looking at anything but her eyes, you're busted.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by leptons ( 891340 )
      It's not "a dress", it's more like a display-tube with a woman crammed inside it. I would love to see her try to bend over in it, I bet it would crack or break somehow.

  • What I noticed / what I think (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Thursday October 19, 2023 @06:17AM (#63936471)

    1) The refresh rate was decent for the format

    2) The resolution is very low

    3) The colour is 1-bit

    4) She only built the front half of the dress

    5) It's obviously not flexible, which is why scales were used

    6) The animation triggered by motion sensors was impressive

    I think the scale size needs to be brought down to about half the current diameter, and either be restricted to accent panels or go all the way around - in which case, it better be tough enough to take someone sitting on parts of it. Or hiking it up to use a toilet, or leaning up against a bar or something.

    It also be nice to see it do something other than silver / white. Presumably the silver is a backing and the white is the PDLC coating blocking the background while activated.

    Oh, and presumably it needs to come paired with a matching purse. And I mean ACTIVELY matching.

  • First thing I though about was that Aurora's dress can now finally happen. If you don't know what I'm talking about you're too damn young... lol
  • ...for watching the hunger games.

  • Subscription Only. (Score:3, Funny)

    by DarkLordBelial ( 4474205 ) on Thursday October 19, 2023 @08:11AM (#63936677)

    How much to subscribe to it, will there be a discount for annual payment and how much cloud storage is included?

  • If she can get the game on it.

  • Adobe Unveils Dress That Can Change Its Pattern On the Fly

    A dress with a fly? I guess it's popular with the trans crowd.

  • ... how many patterns it's capable of displaying.

    It will still only be worn once.

  • Practical question (Score:3)

    by The-Ixian ( 168184 ) on Thursday October 19, 2023 @08:55AM (#63936797)

    How does one wash a dress like that?

    A dry cleaner will take one look at it and refuse to handle it for fear of being sued for damaging it.

    • Rather than wash it, change the pattern to incorporate stains into it!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ebvwfbw ( 864834 )

      How does one wash a dress like that?

      A dry cleaner will take one look at it and refuse to handle it for fear of being sued for damaging it.

      I'm thinking it would zip on. Unzip the front to wash the regular dress via machine. The front just use an alcohol wipe. Like a screen.
      Would be funny to occasionally display hack code or make it look like the green Matrix display. Imagine if someone could hijack the controller to do whatever they want.

  • I appreciate that people want to look good at parties, but red carpets are mostly for TV audience consumption. I would have thought that a dress made of "green screen" material would allow the producers to add any kind of styling (probably advertising they way things are...)

  • Just in time for Halloween. Adobe is going to make a killing on Halloween costumes.

  • the future looms (Score:4, Funny)

    by Walt Dismal ( 534799 ) on Thursday October 19, 2023 @12:45PM (#63937293)

    Eyewitness 1: The bank robber was wearing a green, striped jacket.
    Eyewitness 2: The bank robber was wearing a checkboard pattern jacket.
    Eyewitness 3: The bank robber was Rorschach.

  • This is great for activists! (Score:3)

    by magusxxx ( 751600 ) <magusxxx_2000 AT yahoo DOT com> on Thursday October 19, 2023 @04:15PM (#63937819)

    They can change their slogan from "Free Tibet" to "Stop The Pipeline" while traveling on the bus from protest to protest.

  • Finally! We can have a coat with similar appearance that Stan S. Stanman [fandom.com] has in Monkey Island.

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