New material could change entire fabric of electronic goods

David Lussey, Peratech managing director, demonstrates a cloth keyboard using the Peratech substance

By Richard Stenger
CNN.com Writer

(CNN) -- An innovative substance that looks like grains of sand could someday allow people to control palmtops from their jacket sleeves or television sets from the arms of their sofas.

Peratech is a lightweight, malleable conductor that can detect, measure and respond to a range of pressures "from the lightest touch to the heaviest hammer blow," according to the Peratech Company of North Yorkshire, England.

The composite can easily be shaped into granular form and affixed to fabrics, plastics and other solids. Eventually it could be used to create imaginative products such as musical keyboards that roll up or clothing that monitors bodily functions, according to inventor David Lussey.

"We're very close to the commercial product now. We can make this composite routinely and in quite large batches," said Lussey, the managing director of Peratech.

The venerable London-based advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi was so impressed by the touch technology that it awarded Peratech its annual award for innovation in communication this week.

	AUDIO
Hear Peratech Managing Director David Lussey describe the company's invention 238K/22 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

"Insight, imagination and ideas are the currency of the future," said Bob Isherwood, Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide creative director, in a statement.

Lussey said he stumbled upon the Peratech technology in the laboratory about four years ago.

"It was a chance discovery. I was actually trying to make something else when it tested curiously for electrical properties," he said.

Finalists in the 2000 competition included giant LCD building blocks that could turn transmit Internet data on household walls and shoes that change the walking motion of their wearers into power for electric devices like cell phones.

Others included a universal pill marking that could make identifying and administering medicine an almost foolproof procedure, regardless of language or reading ability. And a "digital scent" technology that could enable consumers to send scented e-mails and smell fragrances as they shop online.

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Peratech
Saatchi & Saatchi

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