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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Researchers Create the World’s First Touchscreen Built Directly Into Clothing

Imagine checking your health data, controlling a device, viewing images, or responding to a digital command simply by touching your sleeve. You would not need to pull out a smartphone or carry a rigid screen. The information could appear directly on your clothing.

This futuristic idea has taken a major step toward reality. Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a special electronic fiber that can both display information and detect touch. By weaving these fibers into a sleeve, the researchers created what they describe as the world’s first touchscreen integrated into a garment.

The technology combines the functions of a digital display, touchscreen, and several sensors while keeping the flexibility, breathability, and washability of ordinary fabric.

A Screen Made From Fibers

Traditional screens on smartphones, tablets, and laptops are built on flat, rigid surfaces. They use tiny electronic components arranged across a two-dimensional panel to produce images and respond to touch.

Clothing works very differently. Fabric is made from long, flexible fibers that can be woven, knitted, or sewn together. Creating complex electronics inside something as thin and flexible as a thread has therefore been a major engineering challenge.

The NUS research team, led by Assistant Professor Tural Khudiyev from the College of Design and Engineering, developed a new approach to solve this problem.

Instead of treating the fiber simply as a wire, the researchers turned it into a complete electronic platform. Their fiber contains components capable of producing light, detecting touch, and communicating with other electronic systems.

The result is a material that looks and behaves much more like ordinary yarn than a conventional electronic screen.

Thousands of Electronic Components Inside a Thread

One of the biggest challenges was connecting thousands of extremely small electronic components along a fiber.

The researchers developed a programmable manufacturing technique that creates connection points precisely where individual microchips need to be attached. A laser exposes specific areas of tiny insulated wires, while controlled surface wetting directs molten solder to the correct locations.

Using this method, the team successfully integrated more than 5,000 chips through more than 20,000 electrical connections.

These interconnected components were then incorporated into a multilayer fiber using a process called thermal drawing. This technique allows different materials and electronic layers to be formed together into a long, thin fiber.

The resulting fiber was approximately 1 millimeter thick and 10 meters long.

This is important because conventional electronic circuits are generally designed on flat surfaces. A fiber, however, has a narrow, cylindrical structure. The researchers therefore needed a completely different way of arranging and connecting electronic components.

Turning a Sleeve Into a Touchscreen

To demonstrate the technology, the researchers integrated 54 pixel fibers into the forearm section of a sleeve.

Each fiber contained 96 LEDs, producing a display with a resolution of 96 × 54 pixels. The display measured approximately 168 × 105 millimeters and could refresh images at 30 frames per second with 8-bit color.

But the display does more than show pictures.

A separate layer within the fiber can detect touch. When someone presses the fiber, the pressure changes an electrical circuit. The system then determines where the touch occurred and activates the corresponding pixel.

Because each fiber has its own control channel, a problem in one fiber does not necessarily disable the surrounding fibers. The system can also detect multiple touches at the same time.

This means the sleeve functions much more like a genuine touchscreen than simply a fabric display.

More Than Just a Display

The researchers also integrated other electronic fibers into the garment.

These included fibers containing a microphone, speaker, motion sensor, compass-related sensing, temperature sensing, and ambient-light detection.

Together, these components allow the garment to perform several functions that resemble those of early smartphones.

The prototype can run a calculator, display photographs, play videos, respond to voice commands, receive images through Bluetooth, and automatically adjust its screen orientation and brightness.

The sleeve can even measure body temperature. When the temperature-sensing fiber is positioned underneath the arm, it can detect the wearer's temperature and display the information directly on the garment.

This combination of display and sensing could eventually make clothing a completely new type of digital interface.

It Can Still Be Washed and Bent

One of the biggest problems with wearable electronics is durability.

Electronic devices are usually not designed to be repeatedly washed, stretched, folded, or bent. Clothing, however, must withstand all of these conditions.

The NUS team tested its textile touchscreen to see whether normal use would damage its performance.

After 50 washing cycles with detergent, the display's light output and touch response remained nearly unchanged. The researchers also subjected the material to 1,000 bending cycles around a radius of just 5 millimeters.

The electronic garment continued to function.

The researchers also found that the display remained breathable, with properties comparable to common fabrics such as cotton, polyester, and denim. It also stayed within established safety limits for skin contact.

These characteristics could be crucial if the technology is eventually used in everyday clothing.

Clothing Could Become a Health Interface

One of the most promising applications is healthcare.

Future garments could contain fiber-based sensors capable of continuously collecting physiological information. Instead of sending that information to a separate device, the clothing itself could display the data and allow the wearer to interact with it.

For example, smart clothing could potentially monitor body temperature or other health-related signals and provide feedback directly through the fabric.

The researchers also see opportunities to combine the technology with artificial intelligence (AI).

A future garment could collect information about the wearer, analyze it, and provide personalized feedback without requiring a conventional screen.

This could be particularly useful for healthcare, fitness, rehabilitation, and assistive technologies.

From Smart Screens to Smart Clothing

The current prototype is still relatively low-resolution compared with modern smartphones. However, the researchers believe smaller microchips and thinner fibers could eventually produce larger and sharper textile displays.

Because the electronic components are distributed along the length of the fibers, they can potentially be knitted, woven, or embroidered using existing industrial textile machines.

That could make the technology easier to incorporate into different types of clothing.

The possibilities extend beyond displaying information. Future versions could combine displays, sensors, touch controls, communication systems, and AI into the same textile platform.

Instead of carrying technology in a pocket, people could eventually wear technology as part of their everyday clothing.

A New Kind of Human-Technology Interface

The NUS research represents an important shift in how we think about wearable electronics.

For decades, computers became smaller and more portable, moving from desktops to laptops and then smartphones and smartwatches. The next step may be to move computing interfaces directly into the materials people wear.

The team's touchscreen sleeve demonstrates that a fabric can potentially become more than something that covers the body. It can become a display, sensor, communication interface, and computing platform while remaining flexible and washable.

The researchers are now working toward higher-resolution displays, integrated sensing, and on-device AI.

If these developments succeed, future clothing may not simply be “smart” because it connects to a smartphone. It could become a digital device in its own right—one that understands its wearer, senses the surrounding environment, and provides information exactly where it is needed.

The era of wearable technology may therefore be moving beyond watches and glasses. The next screen you interact with could be the shirt on your back.

Reference: Heng Fu et al., Touch-sensing digital pixel fibre enables interactive garment GUI, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-11128-9.

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