Imagine a world where, with a simple hand gesture, you could change your clothes to any color you desired.

That's the premise of intelligent textiles, a color-shifting fabric developed by a Hong Kong research team that has developed a color-changing textile embedded with a tiny camera and making use of artificial intelligence.

The innovation was showcased at Milan Fashion Week in February this year where models strutted down the runway in the dark, adorning garments and handbags made of the glowing fabric which combines Polymeric Optical Fibres (POF) -- a material typically used in the medical and automotive industries -- with yarn. The clothes they wore shone from bright blue, to orange, to green and then a deep purple.

The material that they were made from was developed by Hong Kong-based Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence in Design (AiDLab) and makes use of deep learning and computer vision, a field of artificial intelligence (AI) that trains computers to interpret information from images.

AiDLab is a research operation jointly established by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and the Royal College of Art (RCA) in the UK, focusing on the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with design.

Containing an integrated camera which uses AI algorithms to generate varied colored illuminations, the intelligent textile is controllable through hand and body gestures, mobile devices, or remote control.

For instance, a thumbs-up triggers deep blue, a finger heart gesture elicits pink, and an 'OK' sign prompts a jewel-toned green illumination.

The fabric's latest feature even enables wearers to extract colors from their phone photos, projecting them onto the fabric.

Beyond an obvious application in the fashion industry, the technology could also be harnessed for rehabilitative purposes, says Professor Jeanne Tan, a member of the team that developed the product.

"Multi-sensory stimulation is something that is very common for, it's a form of well-being for a lot of people, people with dementia, people with learning challenges," said Tan.

For instance, at the Wong Tai Sin District Health Centre in Hong Kong, three fitness apparatuses made from intelligent textiles respond to specific exercises by changing colors, fostering engagement through instant visual feedback.

Researcher Miffy Yu also underscored the sustainability benefits of this technology. With the ability to modify garment colors using this material, she says it could reduce the waste associated with discarding clothing when preferences change, promoting a more sustainable approach to fashion consumption.

AiDLab hopes that the technology will one day be commercialized. It's currently on display in installations at shopping malls and other locations in Hong Kong. — Report from Reuters