Almost exactly a year ago I had the pleasure to introduce you to the Vega One collection from Canadian clothing designer Angella Mackey.

Angella acquired a diverse background such as new media art, electronics, fashion and product design, elements that enable her to create aesthetically delighting, wearable technology enhanced fashion.

Her 2012/13 collection, succeeding the Vega One rain-coat and cape, expanded into a all-season line of garments ranging from coats, capes and smocks to comfortable neck-wear accessories.

Each style features the Vega illumination, a soft, bright light accent to add a sparkle to the outfit, a sparkle doubling as little safety feature in low light condition.

Vega, based in Gothenburg, Sweden is planning to expand the retail option beyond the online shop which carries the new collection and move into old fashion, brick and mortar shops around the globe.

Most styles are ready-to-wear, off the rack with the option of made-to-measure.

Wearable Power, the seamless, unobtrusive integration of electrical power storage or generation into woven structures – speak fabrics – is a highly active area in wearable tech research and development.

A team of scientists at the Polytechnic School of Montreal, Canada led by Maksim Skorobogatiy has joined the race for wearable power with a highly promising technology that might be able to get a good electrical charge into our smart wardrobe sooner than many might have expected.

The team came up with a type of Li-Ion battery chemistry which is not based on the usual liquid electrolytes but made of solid thermoplastic sheets of lithium iron phosphate cathodes, lithium titanium anodes sandwiched between solid polyethylene oxide electrodes.

Strips cut from the sheet are woven into fabrics, integrating a electrical power storage capability into textiles. The battery strips have the consistency and feel of leather which can make it useful for certain types of fabrics to blend into them seamlessly.

One hurdle the team has still to work out is to make this battery thread/strip water proof so it can be used for fabrics exposed to the elements.

More details about this revolutionary wearable power development can be found under this link (pdf document).

The woven battery of Maksim Skorobogatiy’s team is the most exiting wearable power development I have seen for a long time because of two noticeable features: for one, it is not requiring liquids which are highly susceptible of leaking, especially when incorporated into soft, flexible structures such as fabrics. Secondly, judging on the build process of this battery stripes, it looks fairly simple to fabricate and to feed into a weaving process.

Realistically maybe not yet ready for fabrics used to make garments but certainly for powered messenger bags, backpacks and fashion bags to keep the smart devices charged up longer with smart and powerful fabrics.

[via New Scientist]

2012 will see hyper activity in research and development of smart shirts for sports/fitness apparel – at least this is my view on the ‘killer application’ in wearable tech this year.

Smart shirts, having textile sensors integrated that pick up the electrical signals generated by muscle activity like heart rate form the heart muscle or respiration from the lung activity and many more.

The electrical signals are transmitted to devices that record, process, analyze and visualize them for the purpose of monitoring and assessing ones fitness and performance.

Integrating sensory functions into clothing makes sense as it does take away the need of wiring up before starting a workout. Smart sensing apparel can even monitor activities over the whole day if wanted to check out the excitement spikes coming up in heated debates in the office.

A group of students from from Northeastern University in Boston designed the SQUID Shirt, an activity monitoring shirt that places the electrodes around the shirt in a form factor resembling squid tentacles.

The SQUID Shirt is designed to ‘talk’ with Android phones via an App that processes and visually present the activity data.

According to the Northeastern press release the SQUID could be in the market in 2-3 years which seems to me a rather long timeline considering that most if not all elements used to create the SQUID shirt functionality is fairly advanced developed and ready to move into into the consumer market.

[via Engadget]

Looking for a special something for your special someone to give a electrifying Valentine’s Day gift? Here is a tip: Sparkfun is running a Plushbot Class on Saturday Feb 11th at the Sparkfun HQ in Boulder, CO from 9am until 5pm

The eTextile class centers around the Plushbot design, which incorporates electronics into stuffed animals to create interactive toys.

This class offers a excellent opportunity not only to pick up eTextile tips and tricks but also to walk away with a one-of-a-kind Valentine’s Day present.

Instructors of this class will be Yingdan Huang, the creator of the Plushbot, Lindsay, Jeff and Dia, eTextile goddess at Sparkfun.

You will learn about and handle eTextile elements like light sensor, LEDs, switches and buzzer, flex sensor, conductive thread, felt, a 1000mAh Lipo Battery and a LilyPad Simple Board.

Minimum requirement for participation is to thread a needle – in case you are not that far yet – still time to practice until Saturday.

You will also need to bring your own laptop with Arduino software installed – please see all details on Sparkfun’s website.

Wish you a happy sewing, stitching and switching.

Integrating light elements into clothing never ever fails to attract astonishment and the ‘wow’ effect when unsuspecting people come for the first time in contact with illuminated clothing.

I experienced this first hand while working on illuminated textiles, a rewarding feeling for the designer. What puzzles me is why textile illumination has not been more adopted by now by fashion brands.

There are a few exceptions like the gorgeous light emitting dresses from MOON Berlin and Cute Circuit and a range of stage-wear created by various designer for artists but besides this very limited availability it’s still dark in the fashion world.

How exiting illuminated fashion is has been once again demonstrated by fashion graduate student Caitleen Moloney at the CIT (Canberra Institute of Technology) in Australia last December.

For her final year project Caitleen designed five outfits featuring LED’s integrated into pockets that create indirect, soft light effects.

Caitleen Moloney does not see this type of fashion design ready for every day wear but is more interested in costume design for performing art and artists.

Is it because textile illumination is not yet developed to a point where it can be used for consumer products? If this is the case the challenge would be in the wearable tech community to do the homework and create reliable systems fit for use in ready-to-wear fashion.

Fashion represents a very emotional, luxury item in our life, it does not (only) fulfill a basic functional need. Fashion is allowed to dream, to imagine, to be playfully creative yet, in reality, our fashion in the ready-to-wear market is made from very traditional materials, the creativity is limited to cut and color variations.

How well received textile illumination can be … read the last part of the Canberra Times article featuring Caitleen Moloney’s illuminating collection.

Picking up on my habit featuring DIY infos for the weekend, the recent announcement of Adafruit about the soon to be launched wearable electronic platform called Flora, designed by Limor Fried aka Ladyada, is promising a exiting year ahead for the eTextile community.

Flora will be an alternative to the currently available LilyPad, a wearable computing platform used by the eTextile community as essential part in their tool box.

The circular shape is taking it’s lead from the LilyPad but Flora comes with a smaller footprint measuring just 44.45mm (1.75 inch) in diameter compared to 50mm (1.97 inch) of the LilyPad.

A great advancement is also the inclusion of a mini-USB connector on the Flora board, taking away the need of an additional breakout board for USB connection to a computer. This on-board USB connector makes updating of the Flora software on the fly easy.

14 sewing tap pads for attachment and electrical connection will give lot of room to create complex wearable tech systems.

Almost any battery can be connected safely to the Flora with voltages ranging form 3.5v to 16v DC and allow battery chemistry of LiIon/LiPoly, LiFe, alkaline or rechargeable NiMh/NiCad batteries. No worry about polarity of the battery, the Flora will not give up on you when accidentally the battery is connected in the wrong way. A integrated schottky diode will protect the electronic.

The Flora platform will be expanded with additional modules such as Bluetooth, GPS, 3-axis accelerometer, compass module, flex sensor, piezo, IR LED, push button, embroidered + capacitive keypad, OLED and more to be added in future.

This new wearable electronics platform will open – or should I say unleash – a new wave of wearable tech creativity, providing beginners and professional alike a powerful tool to make, hack and design the fashion of the future.

I will certainly keep you posted on the progress and release of the Flora platform.

Read more details about Flora at Adafruit Industries

Researcher at the Ohio State University focus on antenna integration into clothing using plastic film and metallic thread. The potential benefit of doing so is the increase of four times of the antenna range compared to a conventional antenna.

Currently the textile antenna research is targeted towards smart fabrics for the army enhancing the ‘communication reliability and mobility of the soldiers’ according to Chi-Chih Chen, research associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State.

Embedding antennae into clothing is not a new concept but this particular research project adds a smart antenna twist to fabric antennae which are either printed or embroidered all over the clothing forming a antenna network which is controlled by a CPU. It is the same principle as the huge radio antennas that listen to space: instead of building one massive antenna, researcher build multiple smaller antenna and connect them to a network of antennas that represent a powerful, gigantic antenna.

Transferred to the human body means multiple antenna patches around the clothing form a much more powerful antenna when networked together because this antenna configuration will ensure under almost any situation at least one antenna element will always point into the signal direction.

What works for military purpose will have great value in other areas such as healthcare or monitoring of elderly people, staying connected during fitness activities to record workout or to give some extra boost to the iPhone antenna to eliminate call drop in otherwise radio silent side alleys.

The fabrication of the antenna elements look very simple, like printing of antenna pattern with conductive ink or using a embroidery machine as the research team has done for the prototype fabrication.

One dark spot has this smart, wearable antenna – the estimated cost right now is about U$ 200.- which naturally will limit the use for civilian application but there is a great likeliness these cost will come down considerably once volume production will start.

Read more about this at OSU Research News

The use of Smart Fabrics for fashion is still in a very early stage with many uncertainties when and how Smart Fabrics will become another fabric selection option to fashion designer.

While the apparel industry is feverishly searching for the ‘killer application’ another at first sight unlikely business seems to have more innovative vision how Smart Fabrics can spice up and enrich in a sensible way their product range.

The car industry and in particular one of the innovators in this industry, German based BMW is very serious to replace the textile surfaces that make a car interior so comfy with Smart Fabrics that sense the car occupants, that serve as interaction point with the car and will accept our swiping gestures we use like it is part of our DNA to swipe our way through life.

BMW picked up the idea to use Smart Fabrics based on the work of researchers at the Polytechnic School in Montreal, Canada, who developed a soft, polymer-based fiber which can be woven into fabric adding electrical properties to the fibers that change depending on where it is touched.

According to researcher Maksim Skorobogatiy a piece of Smart Fabrics has been woven to prove the technology. Finger touches or swipes modify the capacitance of the fibers in the fabric. Apparently fabrics containing this sensing fiber can be easily cleaned – a must have for any car interior material.

During last years Geneva Motor Show BMW presented a concept car with smart surfaces giving a hint in which direction the future of car interaction will go. Less than a year later BMW found what they have been looking for and it might be just another 1-2 years before Smart Fabrics upgrade our car interior design and functionality.

Does that mean cars will be the killer application of smart fabrics? This could be the case in my opinion. The car industry is more aggressive and active when it comes to innovation. Research and development budgets in the car industry are substantially higher compared to the textile and clothing industry.

People working on soft technologies might what to check out opportunities the car industry can offer. Other areas of smart fabrics car designer have great interest is sensing fabrics (to monitor the fitness of the driver for example) and textile illumination to create a pleasant atmosphere inside the car.

[via NewScientist]

PS: sorry for having been silent for a long time, got too many distraction around me. One of my personal challenges for 2012: update talk2myShirt on a more regular basis compared with the past few month. Stay tuned and thank you for checking out this place.

Just a few hours after our posting about a mysterious video clip showing the Nike MAG in what looked like a testing room, the secret is officially unveiled.

It turns out Nike produced 1500 pairs of this futuristic shoe and will auctioning off all of them on eBay (nikemag.eBay.com) starting on Thursday Sept 8th at 8:30pm 150 pairs will be posted per day until Sept 18th

Nike will donate the net proceeds of the Nike MAG auction to The Michael J. Fox Foundation which aims to eradicate Parkinson’s disease. Michael J. Fox who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991, played the ‘Back to the Future’ character Marty McFly wearing in one episode the now famous MAG shoes with Nike branding on it.

The Nike MAG 2011 edition features a EL (ElectroLuminescent) Nike logo on the strap and LED elements at the heel and sole part. The light effect can be activated with a squeeze of the ‘ear’ on the high top and will glow for five hours per charge.

Looks like the future of footwear is not quite here yet as the Nike MAG is not made for the masses around the globe but only for a select few that manage to win one of the auctions.

[source: NiceKicks]

The future finally arrived – at least for the much talked about Nike sneakers Marty McFly in the cult movie ‘Back to the Future Part II‘ had on his feet.

Since that movie has been released countless innovators and hackers attempted to bring these shoes back from the future.

According to a viral video showing lines after lines of illuminated, Nike Swoosh carrying MAG sneakers in what seems like a testing room at a factory, Nike themselves worked on the future of footwear, bringing the MAG sneakers back from the future and into footwear stores nearby.

Nike, presumably working on a top secret, wearable technology shoe project for some time would redefine the future of footwear if the MAG shoe hits the pavements of cities around the globe.

There is much speculation at this point about the authenticity of the video and no other information pointing towards the availability of a MAG shoe but hey – todays technology world is partly defined by speculation and rumors.

If Nike, a top brand in the sneaker business, indeed launches the MAG Fly sneaker it would be the greatest shoe wear (r)evolution in recent history. Launching the MAG  shoe for the consumer market would place Nike on the top of footwear innovation and give a big boost towards a wearable technology enriched fashion future.

[via: Adafruit.com]