Korea, Republic of

And now a multifunctional sensor based on semiconductor fibres that emulates the five human senses and is expected to be utilised in a variety of state-of-the-art technology fields such as wearables, Internet of Things (IoT), electronic devices, and soft robotics.

A research group, led by Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, has come up with an ordinary silk thread, coated with a conductive plastic material, that shows promising properties for turning textiles into electricity generators.

In a first for the world, Korean scientists have developed graphene-based, customised e-textiles that can be manufactured in an environmentally friendly manner, as neither the use of chemicals nor any additional processing is required.

In what could be a new chapter of next-generation smart clothes, researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) have come up with an energy-harvesting versatile fabric that can generate electricity from sweat and body movements.

Korean scientists are working to build multi-scale facilities for the chemical recycling of clothing waste, especially polyester, which can then be used as clean feedstock as the sorting method eliminates most organic impurities including intractable dyes.

Nothing can beat human creativity. However, as the use of artificial intelligence (AI) increases, employing it for repetitive tasks will help designers to focus on more high-difficulty creative work.