"We won't see such garments in stores for another 20 or 30 years, but the practical and creative possibilities are exciting, " said Prof Joanna Berzowska, of the Department of Design and Computation Arts at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.

BBC: 'Computerised fabrics' in clothes could charge phones

Yet I believe that taking principles from one domain and applying them to a new context -- in this case mixing traditional visual aesthetics with advanced computation and algorithms -- is where the practice of design tends to make its biggest marks.

CNN: How to design a better world