International Fashion Machines is a Seattle-based company which researches and creates interactive textiles that can change colour, broadcast and receive radio signals, or act as keyboards under one’s fingertips.

For the Extreme Textiles: Designing for High Performance exhibition, IFM has made a switch in the shape of a pompom. Conductive fibers detect the press of a hand. “You just squeeze the pompom, and the lights go on or off,” said Dr. Margaret Orth, the company’s founder.

Fabric switches should reach stores later this year.

The exhibition takes place at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, till October 30, 2005.

Via Hippoblog < The New York Times.
Interview of Maggie Orth in HorizonZero.
Related: Sensory fabrics.