Tomorrow's tech showcased by inventors

Some of the UK's most promising tech entrepreneurs gathered at the Cambridge Enterprise Conference Cambridge to show how their ideas could shape the future. QIO Systems has come up with connected clothing thanks to a remote control woven into the interior of the coat or the strap of a bag, which can then be used to control a gadget such as an MP3 player. The system works by meshing aluminium wires into a nylon strap attached to a textile touchpad at one end and dock for the gadget at the other. Touching the piezoelectric textile pad lowers its electrical resistance causing a current to flow through the aluminium wires and sending the signal to the attached device. The system currently works with MP3 players and Bluetooth mobile phones but the company plans to adapt it to work with more devices such as GPS and says it could even control self-heating or illuminating jackets. The company has already sold tens of thousands of the touchpads to clothing manufacturers, some through Marks and Spencer and also through European fashion store Celio.