Horizon Award Winners: 10 Cutting Edge Technologies Coming Soon

[mandy]

It started as an idea for making more life-like puppets for the British TV show Spitting Image. Four years later, Eleksen Group PLC is hoping that its interactive textile technology will form the foundation for a new generation of wash-and-wear computer control and display devices.

The centerpiece of the technology is ElekTex, a fabric-based, pressure- sensitive control interface that can be integrated into jackets, bags and other textile products. The technology is already used as a remote control for iPods and cell phones in backpacks and coats. At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Eleksen presented its latest design concept, which integrates ElekTex fabric controls with an LCD display that can interact with Windows Vista’s Sideshow feature. The latter exports information from a Vista laptop to a secondary display. Mini-applications, or “gadgets,” written for Sideshow can then wirelessly deliver e-mail, alerts or other updates to the remote screen even if the laptop remains in its case and turned off. Fabric-based controls and embedded control electronics interact with the display...

full article: http://www.computerworld.com/action/arti...ticleBasic&articleId=297723&intsrc=hm_ts_head
summary of award winners: http://www.computerworld.com/action/arti...ArticleTOC&specialReportId=9000382&articleId=296934