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Smart fabric producer Eleksen has moved from satirical puppetry to cutting-edge wearable computing in just eight years, and the man charged with extending its potential is Andrew Newman. Niall Firth reports.

There cannot be many UK technology companies that have a slimy Ken Baker, a dribbling Roy Hattersley or even a pallid, pea-pushing John Major to thank for their birth. But as a small, young firm based at Pinewood Studios, Eleksen has perhaps one of the stranger histories in the UK technology sector.

In 1998 two special effects and animatronics specialists who were working on television’s satirical puppet show Spitting Image developed a new textile to make the puppets’ skin appear far more lifelike. From these unusual beginnings Eleksen has continued to develop ‘smart fabrics’ and is now poised to make real headway in the burgeoning field of wearable computing.

Andrew Newman is product manager at Eleksen and responsible for developing the company’s proprietary technology, ElekTex. Having initially worked at Psion and then Flextronics nothing he did at these two companies had prepared him for having to turn his attention completely to the development of fabrics.

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