Hmmmm … those trousers on eBay sure look nice, but how do you know whether the fabric is easy on the skin or more like wearing sandpaper? As things stand now, you have no way of telling, and that’s a gap in our online purchasing lives that needs patching desperately. Fear not, we Europeans are on the case – the HAPTEX project is developing devices that will simulate the tactile feel of textiles over an internet connection. How have we survived without this technology for so long?