CWI DIS Group awarded EU Worth Project Funding

CWI's Distributed & Interactive Systems Group (DIS) has been awarded a  grant for a project by the EU's WORTH Partnership Project.

The project is a result of an earlier symposium on "Smart Textiles and  Soft Robotics" organised by DIS with the Royal College of Art, the  
UK's leading art and design university. It brings CWI together with a team of British designers who fabricate cloth out of lace, woven not from  
traditional thread, but instead using light-carrying fibres. The lace is then lit from the edges using tiny LED lights, allowing the lace to change  
colour as required.

The project will initially develop user-interface technologies based on the DIS group's "Igor" Internet of Things architecture to allow the  
materials to be used in theatre productions, where the cloth become part  of the standard theatre lighting set-up.

The EU WORTH Partnership Project creates and supports transnational collaborations between fashion designers, creative people, manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) and technology groups looking to develop design-driven and innovative products.

CWI’s Distributed and Interactive Systems research group focuses on facilitating and improving the way people access media and communicate  
with others and with the environment. They address key problems for society and science, resulting from the dense connectivity of content,  
people, and devices. The group uses recognized scientific methods, following a full-stack, experimental, and human-centered approach.