If it is up to the scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas, you can soon charge your mobile phone by plugging it into your T-shirt!

The university is researching ways to weave energy-transmitting yarn into ready-to-wear material. So far, the scientists have discovered a way to create energy generating textiles from powder-infused carbon nanotubes. The nanotubes in use will be able to support superconducting particles, such as magnesium powder, with a more manageable form without binders or lasers. If the scientists are successful, this energy-transmitting yarn could be fashioned into lightweight batteries you can wear. This concept of wearable batteries that look like regular clothing would mean that you no longer have to search for a power outlet could and look fashionable at the same time!

Read more on Ecouterre and Inhabitat!

This week I came across two great examples that perfectly match with the title of this blog: Social Textiles! They combine social media with clothes; more in particular with T-shirts!

Firstly there is the Facebook application, Status king which makes it possible to order T-shirts with  some basic Facebook information about yourself printed on: more in particular your Facebook status, user picture and how long ago you’ve updated your status. So if you want to let  know “what are you doing right now?” in a non-digital way!

But if you say: I’m not so a Facebook-fan. I’m more into Twitter, than I have some very good news for you! Similar to the Facebook application there is a service, called TWitoShirt which displays your tweets on a shirt, exactly as it appears on the web; so not only the message is printed, but also the username, user picture and the time that has elapsed. An additional feature is that you can also customize the size and colours.

Source: Mashable, Status king, TWitoShirt