At present this technology is being developed mainly for military use. It aims to provide a lightweight source of power for a soldier’s backpack and equipment, and to be able to warn of an impending enemy or chemical attack. For the civilian, the smart fabrics of the future should enable us to wear clothes that will diagnose changes in our health, delivering medication where required and even dispensing ‘perfumed’ fluid to combat sweat and rising body temperature. They could also help us to sift through the avalanche of electronic information that will, increasingly, be directed at us. But most significantly these ‘wearable computers’ will enable us to change our outward appearance. Patterns and colours will be available, to be downloaded on to our ‘surface’. This will enable us to constantly alter our appearance for every new person and any possible situation.