Artificial Intelligence (AI) machine are now being used in the designing of textile fabrics.
AI is a human-made machine with the ability to learn just about anything, the ability to reason, the ability to use language and the ability to formulate original ideas.
BBC reports that one of the first firms to using AI in designing fabrics is UK textiles business – The Millshop Online.
” Its AI-powered Fabric Genie tool will turn your text description into a pattern that it will then print onto as many metres of cotton, or a cotton-linen mix, as you want.
Carl Fisher, the company’s director, says: “We’ve been in the industry a while. My mum was a curtain-maker and she worked out of our garage.
“My dad was a textile retailer, and that’s how they met. We started out as wholesalers and then I went into engineering. And so now all the elements have come together.”
Carl Fisher says AI enables people to be “much more free about design and style”
To create Fabric Genie, the Northamptonshire-based business joined forces with an AI consultant called Danny Richman.
“Fabric Genie is a classic example of how artificial intelligence is encroaching into so many fields,” says Mr Richman.
“There’s a huge amount of code that runs the whole process. I’ve built it for Carl, but I’m not a coder.
“Instead, I used an AI to generate the code that is running this whole platform. So it’s enabling all kinds of people, not just in the field of design, to take something that is an idea, and, without any friction whatsoever, turning that idea into a reality.”
Our camper van could do with new curtains, so I decided to test out Fabric Genie by asking it to design a tartan.
I said that I wanted a grey-green and beige base, and some thin stripes in orange, electric blue and shocking pink.
A message tells me to wait between five and 15 minutes for my design to be generated. In the time it takes me to boil the kettle and make a cup of tea, a second email arrives telling me my tartan is ready.
I am presented with four different designs, and a gushing commentary that complements me on my “savvy” choices.
Source: BBC. Com
▪︎An AI-designed tartans
