This paper presents a new design and development process for integrating illuminated Polymeric Optical Fibre (POF) into knitted garments, by incorporating POF directly into the looped structure. Fully-fashioned knitting is presented as a means of overcoming garment design restrictions in existing works. A key challenge this work addresses is the creation of more appealing and fashionable form-fitting illuminated POF garments. The resultant work, a tight-fitting knitted raglan sleeve jumper with a section of knitted POF demonstrates that new aesthetics can be achieved, with our new technique. This project builds on existing research into POF integration into fashion and textiles, whilst challenging the existing view that POF cannot be formed into a looped structure. This project used a hand flat knitting machine to produce the knitted POF garment, to balance the benefits of using handcraft techniques for challenging fibres, with the faster knitting speed better associated with using knitting machines.

For the integration of conductive yarns in e-textiles, knitting offers structural versatility and malleability for wider product applications in the contexts of wearables and interiors. To enable mass adoption of conductive materials, it is imperative for users to be able to launder these materials as part of product maintenance. Interactive textiles knitted from polymeric optical fibres (POFs) and silver-coated conductive yarns are able to illuminate and change colours via integrated touch sensor systems. Current research only focuses on the washability and abrasion resistance of conductive yarns solely and not both POF and conductive yarn within the same fabric structure. This study is novel as it investigates the washability and abrasion resistance of POF and silver-coated conductive yarn integrated knitted textiles with different loop structures and the impact to their illuminative function. POFs were knitted within the same fabric structure by the inlay method using a 7-gauge industrial hand-operated flatbed knitting machine. This study examined how washing and abrasion affect POFs and silver-coated conductive yarn in five different knit structures, and the illuminative function of the knitted textiles. Washing and abrasion affected the resistance of conductive yarns. Scratches and bent POFs were observed after 20 gentle washing cycles. However, washing had minimal impact on the illuminative function of the knitted e-textiles examined in this study. The experiments provide evidence that e-textiles knitted with POFs and conductive yarns in the same fabric structure withstand washing and abrasion and thus have the potential for mass market adoption in fashion and interior applications.

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers the potential for the development of e-textiles that give wearers a smart and intuitive experience. An emerging challenge in intelligent materials design is hand gesture recognition textiles. Most current research focuses on number gesture recognition via smart gloves, so there is a gap in research that studies contact-less number gesture recognition textiles via computer vision. Meanwhile, there is lack of exploration on the integration of illuminating function and number gesture recognition textiles to improve interactivity by real-time visualizing detection results. In this research, a novel interactive illuminating textile with a touch-less number gesture recognition function has been designed and fabricated by using an open-source AI model. It is used in sync with a polymeric optical fiber textile with illuminative features. The textile is color-changing, controlled by the system's mid-air interactive number gesture recognition capability and has a woven stripe pattern and a double-layer weave structure with open pockets to facilitate integration of the system's components. Also described here is a novel design process that permits textile design and intelligent technology to integrate seamlessly and in synchronization, so that design in effect mediates continuously between the physical textile and the intangible technology. Moreover, this design method serves as a reference for the integration of open-source intelligent hardware and software into e-textiles for enhancement of the intuitive function and value via economy of labor.

This paper introduces a weaving method to develop three-dimensional and stretchable polymeric optical fiber (POF) fabrics with double weave. It was discovered from the literature that the appearance and property of existing POF textiles are still quite limited. So far, stretch performance has not been realized for POF textiles. The goal of this paper is to determine the design parameters of creating three-dimensional and stretchable POF textiles. The new properties for POF textiles were realized by combing double weave and elastic yarns with suitable motifs. The surface dimension and stretch were compared for eight POF samples . From the experimental results, it was shown that the POF fabrics woven with the unstitched double weave at substantial transverse areas exhibited the most effective three-dimensional effect and stretch. The POF samples created in this study showcased the characteristics of dimensional surface, great volume, high stretch, as well as unique luminous effects.

Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how electronic components can be utilized and integrated into polymeric optical fibre (POF) textiles to refine the design aesthetic, tactile quality and initiate the interaction of textiles with the users; and to study the design process of interactive products by using a novel design process model.Design/methodology/approach: – Fashion and textile design methods, textile technology are used in combination with modern technologies such as laser engraving, sensing, short-distance communication technology, throughout the entire process of development of interactive photonics creations.Findings: – The results of evaluation indicate that the engineered prototypes can enhance the interactive function of interior furnishing. The usability of interactive POF cushions is optimized by innovative design methods considering both design and technology.Originality/value: – This research explores to combine knowledge from different disciplines, including textile, electronics, sensor and laser to create interactive soft furnishings. The inter-disciplinary research provides a new perspective on how POF fabric can be utilized as a new media to change the way people interact with their living surroundings. The interior soft furnishings are no longer unresponsive to people, but can react to them, adapt to their behaviors, change color according to their preferences and therefore merge into our daily life. The developed prototypes reshape interior soft furnishing, and therefore have both theoretical and practical significance.