The book is a modern and challenging approach to smart textile materials and their design specifically applied in dynamic light filters. Even though such materials are typically associated with passive functionalities, now the emphasis is on the dynamic dimensions that appear in time and movement during the interaction of light with matter under the action of thermal and electrical fields.
The work is structured into three parts and seven chapters, and is finalized with conclusions and reference lists. In Part I, basic concepts in dynamic color in textiles are presented, for a deeper understanding of thermochromic mechanisms in connection with light transmittance and electrical activation of thermo-responsive textiles. These theoretical notions are strongly supported in Part II by a large palette of experimental works to highlight dynamic form in textiles, with special emphasis placed on origami surfaces in order to demonstrate shape memory in materials and textiles. Although an ancient Japanese art of folding paper, in the last decades, origami has captured increased interest among practitioners in the arts, design, engineering, and science, providing new possibilities to fabricate, assemble, store, and morph structures.
Part III is devoted to design research based on the revolutionary concept of dynamic light filters, illustrated by three case studies as prototypes that explored the expressive possibilities of color, shape, and light performance through different intensity levels of change. These prototypes have been designed for artistic interior environments, which demonstrate the distinctive role of such smart textiles as interactive surfaces of our everyday life.
The highly interdisciplinary nature of the book should be stressed, as fundamental aspects and knowledge on light and color physics are examined in detail. This provides a basis for further developments on how smart materials are integrated in textile substrates to acquire dynamic qualities to interactively change their color and shape in response to sensed stimuli. Even more impressive is the ability of the textile for sensing, reacting, and adapting under the influence of the electric field, resulting in textile-based conductive materials that can combine data processing, communication, and power supply functions, thus imparting these very smart textiles with capabilities for computation, electronics, and device miniaturization.
This book might be of interest to both academia and industry specialists who are able to exploit the versatile features of smart textiles related to various scientific and application fields, such as materials science and engineering, biomaterials used in therapies, electronics and computing, design, architecture, and the arts. The book is illustrated with relevant figures able to support the interpretation of experimental data, while details on materials and methods used are included to allow for the reproduction of experiments. These could be useful and recommended as supplementary information for MSc and PhD students, and researchers involved in highly innovative projects.
