Bridget Carey is an award-winning reporter who helps you level-up your life -- while having a good time geeking out. Her exclusive CNET videos get you behind the scenes as she covers new trends, experiences and quirky gadgets. Her weekly video show, "One More Thing," explores what's new in the world of Apple and what's to come. She started as a reporter at The Miami Herald with syndicated newspaper columns for product reviews and social media advice. Now she's a mom who also stays on top of toy industry trends and robots. (Kids love robots.) Bridget has spent over 18 years as a consumer tech reporter, hosting daily tech news shows and writing syndicated newspaper columns. She's often a guest on national radio and television stations, including ABC, CBS, CNBC and NBC. Make it pink. Make it blue. Or make it pink and blue stripes. With color-changing smart fabric, you can change your outfit with the press of a button on an app. Researchers at the University of Central Florida are taking wearables to the next level with a new color-changing fabric they call ChroMorphous. Controlled by an app, this battery-powered fabric physically changes color when turned on. Fashion and technology sometimes make an awkward pair. Levi's has a jacket that can connect to Uber or Lyft. Samsung has a suit that can unlock a phone. Pizza Hut has sneakers that pause the TV. But instead of slapping smarts to existing clothing, UCF takes a different approach. The tech is woven throughout the fabric, using threads that incorporate micro-wires and color-changing pigments. I got a chance to see the color-changing fabric myself, as well as talk to the team that developed it at UCF's College of Optics and Photonics.

Imagine throwing on a coat that actively warms you before walking down a frigid street in winter, or slipping on wearable gloves that simulate sensation and change form while playing a VR video game. Both accessories are closer to reality than ever, and could be manufactured using the same, first-of-its-kind smart material. Designed by researchers at the University of Waterloo and detailed in a recent paper published in Nano-Micro Small, the new fabric is billed as the world’s first stimuli-responsive material (SRM) capable of reacting to two external influences—in this case, both heat and electricity. In doing so, the novel SMP can not only change color and shape, but can return to its original form after the stimuli is removed. Check out a video of the material in action below: To achieve their breakthrough, researchers employed a device similar to a traditional loom to manufacture a fabric composed of thin, interwoven recycled plastic polymer and stainless steel threads. Compared to previous, similar materials, the new fabric is activated via lower electrical voltage, thus making it cheaper and more energy-efficient. According to researchers’ paper, the lower voltage could enable the material to eventually be integrated in smaller, more portable devices like biomedical tools and environmental sensors. Thanks to its convenience and simplicity, temperature sensitivity is one of the most common stimuli to employ while researching shape- and color-changing smart materials. As the team explains in their paper, however, precise stimulation is usually extremely difficult. Making their new SRM reactive to electricity thereby allows for much more localized responses via remote control. [Related: This rechargeable battery is meant to be eaten.]

Ever left the house and immediately regretted your choice of pastel shirt? Well, a new colour-changing thread developed by researchers in the US could soon make that feeling a thing of the past - and could also open up the possibility of using our garments as tactile displays we wear on our bodies. Not only could you switch from a black t-shirt to a green one, you could also change the logo on your top. We're still a long way from that, but this new technology, called Ebb, is showing plenty of promise, and could eventually lead to brand new types of smart clothing. The colour-shifting threads change their hues in response to electrical charges. It's being developed as part of Google's Project Jacquard - one of the company's spin-off endeavours that's looking into the potential of making our clothing touch-sensitive and interactive. While the demo video released by researchers a UC Berkeley in California looks incredibly awesome, it's been sped up significantly, and that's one of the downsides of the tech in its current form. Right now, it takes a while to change colours, so any kind of fast, responsive display is out of the question for the time being. Even so, you can definitely see the potential: As Gizmodo's Andrew Liszewski reports, the researchers behind Ebb want to eventually make the fabric as quick to refresh as e-ink, so you could glance down at the cuffs of your shirt to see if you've got any missed calls or messages. And then there's the possibility of clothes that change colour depending on what kind of mood you're in, or what everyone else at the wedding has decided to wear (you really want to avoid upstaging the bridesmaids). " [We] coated conductive threads with thermochromic pigments and explored how we could leverage the geometries of weaving and crochet to create unique aesthetic effects and power efficiencies," writes Laura Devendorf, who is leading the development of Ebb, over at her site, Art for Dorks. "The thermochromic pigments change colours in slow, subtle, and even ghostly ways, and when we weave them into fabrics, they create calming 'animations' that move across the threads," she adds. Beyond colour changing, the scientists and engineers working for Google on Project Jacquard are investigating how touch sensors, haptic (or touch) feedback, and more can be woven into everything from jeans to car seats. "If you can weave the sensor into the textile, as a material you're moving away from the electronics," Google's Ivan Poupyrev told Wired last year. "You're making the basic materials of the world around us interactive."

With a simple tap on our smartphone, you’re able to control a lot around us — whether it’s the music playing from your Bluetooth speaker, the Netflix show on your TV, or even your AC unit. But what if you could also use your phone to alter what your clothes looked like? That’s where ChroMorphous technology — an active, user-controlled color-changing fabric — comes in. Developed by a team of research scientists at The College of Optics and Photonics (known as CREOL) at The University of Central Florida, the new technology allows users to control and switch up the pattern on fabric using a mobile app. CREOL claims the technology differs from “color-changing” fabrics currently on the market today. Rather than LED tricks emitting light, the fabric physically changes color because of the fiber itself. Produced in Melbourne, Florida, the fibers are created from raw materials using machines that spin fibers for textiles. After shipping the fibers to the mills, it’s weaved using regular industrial-scale weaving machines and then the fabric is shipped back to the CREOL team. While the fabric is produced with traditional machinery, the machine is hacked to run a micro-wire inside each thread so that running a current raises the local temperature a little bit — which is enough for a thermochromic pigment to switch color. Basically, the pigments embedded in the thread respond to a switch in temperature and then change color. “When you think of anything you work with on a daily basis, whether it’s how you communicate with people [or] buy stuff, it’s infused with technology … The goal here is to now take fabrics and textiles and garments and say let’s infuse that with technology,” Dr. Ayman Abouraddy, professor of optics and photonics at UFC, told Digital Trends, “I want to be able to communicate with it, I want to tell it how to look, and nothing like that has happened yet. Color-changing is one thing, but our vision is to do much more than that as well.”

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. The Project Primrose dress is, to be sure, the latest in a long line of high-tech fashion exploits which were arguably kicked off in 1999, when the late designer Alexander McQueen positioned supermodel Shalom Harlow on a turntable between two robots equipped with paint spray guns and had them spray the puffy white dress she was wearing in black and yellow. During a Paris show last September, French label Coperni seemed to pay homage to Harlow's McQueen moment when her fellow supermodel Bella Hadid had a dress made out of the sprayable fabric called Fabrican, which was deployed by two human techs in much the same fashion as the robotic arms from McQueen's show more than 20 years prior. Just over a year later, Adobe has entered the fashion tech arena as well — though its display was, of course, much more tech-focused than the fashion dramatics used by McQueen and Coperni. More on tech and fashion: Perplexing AI Video Turns "Harry Potter" Into Balenciaga Ad Adobe has unveiled a sparkling, interactive dress — and got the research scientist who created it to model the high-tech couture.

Researchers in Hong Kong are developing clothing using A.I.-powered "intelligent" textiles, which can change color at the snap of a finger. They hope their techonology could help reduce clothing waste. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout reports. Could humans live underwater? This UK startup thinks so Enthusiasts gather to watch the ‘blood moon.’ See what it looks like ‘Survivor’ contestant and PE teacher goes on the show with a stutter. This is his message to his students 'No obligation to restore your funds.' The truth about crypto hacks Three men rented a car on Turo to get to a baby shower. Then the police arrived Researchers in Hong Kong are developing clothing using A.I.-powered “intelligent” textiles, which can change color at the snap of a finger. They hope their techonology could help reduce clothing waste. CNN’s Kristie Lu Stout reports.

Experience the blend of age-old invention and modern fashion through Electrochromic Fabrics. This wearable technology can change clothing colors with a simple press of a button. It merges historical scientific breakthroughs from the 18th century 1 with today’s vibrant color advancements in electrochromic materials 1. Imagine a world where every piece of clothing can shift colors instantly, matching the wearer’s mood or the setting. This marks a new era of adaptable, personalized fashion. Electrochromic fabrics blend ancient discoveries with modern fashion technology. These textiles bring sustainability to energy savings and smart building applications 1. They make wearable tech more engaging by changing colors fast 1. This technology leads to many applications, like adjustable windows and colorful screens 1. As electrochromic devices evolve, they’ll redefine how we express ourselves and use fashion 1. Electrochromic materials change color when we use just 1 volt of electricity 1. This is not just a new discovery but a field that has grown a lot recently. Now, we have many colors to choose from 1. In science and real-world uses, these materials are now in millions of car mirrors and smart airplane windows 1. Fabrics with these materials are energy-efficient 1. They use little power for things like window coatings and visual displays 1. They can keep their new color without using much or any power, which is great for the environment 1. Also, improvements in electrodes now let colors change really fast — in just 200 milliseconds 1. There are five main types of electrochromic materials, all found since the 1960s 1. Tungsten oxide (WO3) is a key player because it works well 1. Viologen is another important material. It changes colors beautifully and absorbs a lot of light due to its unique structure 1. Conjugated molecules also play a big role in making electroactive conducting polymers 1. The color-changing feature of fabrics with electrochromic materials is deeply scientific 1.

A new thread developed in the US has the ability to change colors in response to electrical charges, bringing the possibility of smart clothing and wearable displays closer to reality. The tech, called Ebb, was revealed in a video released online by researchers at UC Berkeley in California. While it shows the color-changing properties of the thread, one will note that it was sped up significantly. This means that it takes a while before the change in color occurs—so you can forget people walking around with flashing advertisements on their clothing anytime soon. The development of this thread is part of Google's Project Jacquard —one of the company's spin-off endeavors that's looking into the potential of making our clothing touch-sensitive and interactive. The project aims to "seamlessly" integrate our electronics into the very clothes we wear. The thread was made by coating conductive threads with thermochromic pigments, and then learning to incorporate the geometries of weaving and crochet to create the textiles' unusual aesthetics. "The thermochromic pigments change colours in slow, subtle, and even ghostly ways, and when we weave them into fabrics, they create calming 'animations' that move across the threads," writes Laura Devendorf, who is leading the development of Ebb over at her site, Art for Dorks. "The name 'Ebb' reflects this slowness, as it conjures images of the ebb and flow of the tides rather than the rapid-fire changes we typically associate with light emitting information displays," she adds. Can't decide between the black dress or the red? No worries. In the future, you'll be able to wear them both, changing the colors of whatever clothing you happen to be wearing at will. A welcome development for the indecisive among us. Forget buying clothes in every shade of the rainbow…just flick a switch and change their color.

Such chameleon clothing is now closer to reality, thanks to a team of MIT researchers who have "devised a way to make objects that can toggle between different colors." Called ColorFab, the system is built around photochromic inks that switch between transparent and colored states when exposed to certain wavelengths of UV light. The researchers used the inks to create a "dense, multicolored pattern of ­voxels —­ basically units of visual information, like pixels, only in 3-D." After being "activated" with a UV light, the voxels hold their color for several weeks, at which point they start to fade and need to be reactivated. The researchers have so far only worked with 3-D printed plastic, but "believe the concept could be applied to other items, including clothing." A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

IoT is an ecosystem of interrelated computer devices, digital machines and objects that has the ability to transfer data to each other in real-time, with minimum human intervention. Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming industries around the world, including fashion. At its core, IoT is a network of linked devices that exchange data in real time. In fashion, this translates to smart clothes, sensor-integrated materials, and AI-powered wearables that not only improve the user's experience but also reimagine the relationship between clothing and technology. Think about sneakers that lace themselves or fabrics that change color with a tap on your phone. Sounds futuristic, right? But it’s already happening. From Nike’s self-lacing Adapt BB sneakers to textiles that shift colors based on temperature or mood, IoT is transforming clothing into something interactive, responsive, and personalized. So, how does it all work? It starts with sensors and devices—tiny tech embedded in clothing, like RFID tags, biometric sensors, or heat-responsive fibers. These sensors collect data, tracking everything from body temperature to movement. Next comes connectivity, where technologies like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, or RFID transfer this data to apps or cloud systems in real time. Once the data is processed, AI steps in, analyzing patterns like activity levels, posture, or even stress indicators. Finally, the magic happens—automated actions and insights. A smart jacket, for instance, might adjust warmth based on the weather, or a fitness shirt could give real-time posture corrections. This blend of fashion and technology isn’t just about innovation—it’s about making clothes more functional, sustainable, and attuned to everyday life. Whether it’s enhancing comfort, improving performance, or reducing waste in production, IoT is shaping the future of fashion in ways we never imagined. Fashion and technology have come a long way, and IoT has played a major role in that transformation. It all started in the early 2000s with basic fitness trackers like Fitbit and pedometers—simple devices that could track steps but not much else. Then came the 2010s, bringing smartwatches like the Apple Watch and Samsung Gear, which combined fitness tracking with notifications, calls, and more.