Nicola Davison, an MA graduate of Nottingham Trent University, is collaborating with the University to look at ways of furthering commercial development of her research into developing 'feel' of fabrics in computer programmes.

Kelly Radford of John Lewis Partnership recently excused the poor presentation of goods on their website by saying that trying to replicate the choice of over 500,000 items online would be difficult while simultaneously trying to ensure ease of use and speed. Well, Kelly, Google manage to handle 137 million enquiries a month through their search engine with ease and speed, so it is well within the bounds of possibility. Further Kelly Radford says, "We know that there are many products where touch, fit and feel are important and customers may not wish to buy online". With research being conducted by the likes of Ms. Davison and colleagues at Universities elsewhere, I would not think it will be too long before touch and feel become a part of the computer experience.

Nicola Davison has developed software using a series of interactive virtual-reality animations to accurately mimic movement of the surfaces of various fabrics as the mouse pointer is dragged across. She believes (probably rightly) that the system could revolutionise Internet shopping. For example, for the 'hairiness' sensation a close-up image of the surface of a garment is shown in strong backlight. By moving the mouse up and down it you can 'stroke' the fibres and watch them ripple in a realistic way.



The thickness section allows you to lift up the edge of a garment and drop it back down. Thicker garments are heavier and much harder to lift and will drop down again much quicker than a thin one.
The software uses high quality images of a selection of different garments each chosen for their special properties shown as 3-D objects. Using the mouse the images can be rotated, and the user can also zoom in for a close up look at details such as necklines, patterns and seams.
Nicola said: "You can get a feel for the fabrics using your eyes instead of your fingertips. By moving over it you can see the effects of the friction that would be caused by your finger, but instead it is caused by the mouse. It is not designed to be a replacement for touch, but to be complementary."

To develop the software Nicola watched people shopping to see how they interacted with garments. She then developed ten feelings that she felt were most important to assess fabric quality.
She said: "It is a strange sensation, some people who have used it said it send shivers down their spine. I wanted to evoke real emotions people have when picking up clothing to feel it".

Perhaps Ms Davison should be speaking to John Lewis. With over 4% of all retail sales taking place over the web in 2002 and sales predicted to grow to 10% this year the development of stores onto the web will continue apace. With web purchasing growing last year at over 119%, the future for this bright idea and its development looks very good. By providing the extra element, 'feel' may enable web sales to continue to grow at this ferocious rate continuing the shift from traffic clogged crowded shopping streets to calmer more comfortable shopping at home.