News Highlights

The Heriot-Watt team receiving its Research Councils’ Business Plan Competition finalists award from Dr Peter Ringrose, Chair of BBSRC (click to enlarge)

Totallytextures is finalist in Business Plan Competition

A spin-out company from Heriot-Watt University was a finallist in the Research Councils’ Business Plan Competition.

Totallytextures is developing a computer-based tool that will make it easier for clothes designers, interior designers etc to choose exactly the right fabrics for their creations. The tool enables materials or wallpapers, for example, to be scanned and their textures to be depicted as 3D images. Using the computer’s mouse, the images can then be moved around, manipulated or even wobbled, as if the fabric was in the user’s hands.

Crucially, this innovative system provides a much clearer idea of what a texture is actually like (eg in terms of how the light plays on it and its suitability for a particular use) than can be obtained looking at photos in a brochure or catalogue. Currently, the only alternative to brochures or catalogues is the use of swatches, which have the major drawback of being very expensive to produce.

For more information on Totallytextures, contact Professor Mike Chantler, School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Tel: 0131 451 3352, Email: M.J.Chantler@hw.ac.uk