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]

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.

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.

A while ago RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tagging of apparel has been a literally hot item which soon cooled down rapidly.

RFID tagging of apparel using woven or embroidered RFID antenna typically on labels of apparel would allow a wireless logistic control from production floor to inventory control at the shops.

The potential risk of seamless (= hidden) integration of RFID label into our clothing could come from the dark forces using it to track every movement of every smart clothing wearer across the world – at least in theory. This reason set a huge roadblock to a FRID enabled apparel future.

It’s a little sad that such – theoretical – misuse of an otherwise useful function is stopping development at an early stage. I am using a knife to cut my steak on the plate but – theoretically – I could kill someone with that knife as well. I guess you get the point.

How cool the use of RFID tagging for apparel could be is demonstrated by Gomus, a Brazilian Sound Branding agency which links the clothing purchase experience with music experience inside a fitting room.

The RFID tagged apparel once brought into the fitting room will activate an associated background music depending on the apparels nature and style.

Yeah, this is not ricochet scion from technology point of view but a very cool concept, much better than to have the monotone, standard sound servings in most shops.

Maybe using FRID enhanced clothing could be used to open doors for me, to get the barrister get’s started preparing my regular coffee refill as soon as I enter to coffee shop. Oh there would be lot’s of nice little conveniences attached to a simple RFID enabled, branded T-Shirt from hospitality to entertainment business.

Maybe RFID tagging in apparel is not such a evil idea after all.

[via: PSFK]

The growing number of Global Citizen, people who’s place of residents and interest is spread all over the globe face the problem of how to stay connected, to stay in touch with their family.

Traveling around is cool but can be also cold at times when not being able to get the all important personal touch from love ones.

The Hug-Shirt was one of the first wearable technology based designs that explored the possibilities of exchanging a personal touch over long distances. Following designs used a pillow showing another from factor to exchange intimidate, hugging and caring messages around the globe.

A unique design variant with huge potential, technically and commercially, for a long-distant cuddle concept using soft technology has been created by a team of students at the University of Venice, Alberto Elizondo, Francesca Pizzutilo and Roberto Picerno created the ‘Lullaby‘, a quilt equipped with illuminated patches and wireless communication.

How it works: Gestures and touches on one quilt will be transmitted and reproduced on the other quilt which basically could be anywhere around the globe, using the internet and WiFi as link between the two quilts. I can imagine an App for smartphones acting as access point for the Lullaby quilts to establish a 2-way communication.

There is nothing in this world that can replace a stroke down the back or a hug but when this is not an option, long-distance intimacy via Lullaby and similar design concepts should become reality – a growing number of global citizen would love to have them.

Stock Markets are in the spotlight today more than usual so I thought to look for something fitting to all the Stock Market talk but of course with a wearable technology touch.

To my surprise and thanks to a fabulous wearable tech project from emerging artist Erin Lewis, currently studying Integrated Media and Wearable Technology at OCAD University, the ‘Stock Market Lingerie‘ is the perfect match.

Erin’s motivation for this project comes from the relationship between sex and the stock market (money).

Her research uncovered the ‘hormonal changes in men who play the stock market‘ such as elevated testosterone levels when placing successfully big profit deals which in turn leads to even more higher risk taking behavior until disaster strikes ( the last few words are mine).

Surprisingly or not – women love such behavior and are more attracted to these big ticket players. Before going too deep into social behaviors I refer you to Erin’s project blog for further reading.

At this space we have a deeper look into the functionality of the ‘Stock Market Lingerie’ which is powered by a LilyPad Arduino and 2 Xbee radios.

As the man undresses the woman, the undoing of each clasp of the bustier triggers a web-based update on the latest stock market trades via Yahoo! Finance.

Oh well – one has to be a banker to get turned on by stock quotes in this way but besides that – I like the idea of combining so very much (or not) different parts of our life in a very personal, wearable tech enabled clothing item.

In it’s current design the ‘Stock Market Lingerie’ is communicating with the computer to make the visual update of stock movements but she imagines a upgrade of the ‘Stock Market Lingerie’ to give it a voice, to read out the stock quotes each time another clasp is unhooked.

I hope this article and the work of Erin Lewis can inspire and cheer you up a bit, technologically.

Carbon monoxide is part of cigarette and cigar smoke as well as car exhausts highly concentrated on road sides is the silent killer of our time. These gases are invisible and work over time to kill.

Sue Ngo and Nien Lam, two former students at NYU Tisch School of the Arts came up with a brilliant, visually powerful design to remind one self and the polluters how harmful their behavior is.

Their interactive fashion project called ‘Warning Signs‘ uses color changing, Thermochromic fabric with muscle wire integrated to heat up a vein pattern on the lung or heart organ shapes on the sweatshirt.

A carbon monoxide sensor inside the sweater picks up the pollution level and depending on the concentration of the carbon monoxide in the atmosphere around the wearer, the veins will light up more intense as the pollution level increases.

The ‘Warning Signs’ project reminds me to a similar smoking visualization project a few years ago made by Fiona Carswell called the ‘Smoking Jacket’ which featured a pair of lungs at the front and the wearer exhales the cigarette smoke into a pocket in the jacket containing lung image behind a transparent foil. Over time the exhaled smoke will change the lung image visualizing the harmful effect of second hand smoking.

Back to the future, the ‘Warning Signs’ sweater from Sue Ngo and Nien Lam gives a much faster, instant visualization of the environmental degradation caused by carbon monoxide but a range of other sensors sniffing for different harmful gases could be added to show in a playful yet very meaningful way how our environment is attacking us all day.

warning signs from Susan Ngo on Vimeo.

After watching this video clip I might think twice before taking a stroll along a busy road – but …. that’s exactly the point of this design, creating the awareness of what is going on around us.

Still in my catch up mode to hunt down interesting material for talk2myShirt I literally stumbled upon a beautiful textile dress made by Chung-Hay Luk and presented at the eTextile and Wearable Computing Showcase last May, the Sound Illuminating Dress.

The Sound Illuminating Dress is a cleverly designed strapless dress which made the technology involved part of the style decision. Part of the dress is kept in dark fabric while the other part containing EL (electroluminescent) wire at the seam is made from light, white color which wraps in an irregular shape around the front.

The light effect is activated by ambient sound picked up from a microphone. Instead of flashing the light Chung-Hay Luk choose to have a subtle, sophisticated, pulsating light intensity change in the rhythm of life music.

Watch the short video clip below you be surprised.

I have not been a big fan of EL wire designs up to now but seeing Chung-Hay Luk’s design I have to revise my low opinion about EL wire in garments – it’s a matter of aesthetic design understanding what a material can deliver.

Considering the high attention wearable technology attracts lately it is not surprising that big and mighty companies like Microsoft, and I am sure other companies in the same league, are busy to explore the possibilities and opportunities of wearable technology.

Jennifer Darmour at electricfoxy.com managed to have a sneak-peek at the Microsoft  Research Center and talk with Asta Rosweay, Senior Research Designer and User Experience Designer Sheridan Martin Small who created The Printing Dress, a highly interesting concept design that connects the distant past of communication with the present from of tweeting communicating.

A brief description of ‘The Printing Dress’: in the distant past, besides verbal communication, the printed word on paper played an essential part in the development of our civilization.

Fast forward into the 21st Century, printed words on paper are almost completely replaced by dots on a screen, the words and communication compressed into 160 characters strings and tweeted across the globe.

Asta Roseway and her team’s aimed to design a dress to visualized with the use of wearable technology developments the old-meets-new and how this could possibly influences the future of fashion.

The result is a dress made almost entirely of paper, symbolizing the past and connects with todays (wearable) technology and communication forms like tweets. ‘The Printing Dress’ visualizes the constant flow of our always-online, continuous stream of messages.

The laser-cut buttons remind me very much on the keyboard of (very) old type writers. A sweet-romantic touch to a high-tech garment.

See and hear in the video below what Jennifer could find out at the Microsoft Research Center about’ The Printing Dress’

Electricfoxy talks with Asta Roseway at Microsoft Research from Electricfoxy on Vimeo.

Can you wear ‘The Printing Dress’ – most likely not. Will we see this in next spring/summer collection – I am sure not. ‘The Printing Dress’ is an artistic work that stretches and challenges our conventional way of thinking. And because of such artistic creativity there has always been progress for the every-day-life.

[via: electricfoxy]

Deja Vu comes from French and means ‘already seen’ (that). This interesting project title has been selected by MIT students Heidi Chen and Nicole Tariverdian for their intelligent bag, the ‘Deja Vu‘.

‘Already seen’ is applied to the situation at which their Deja Vu bag saves the peace of mind of people constantly either forgetting or having the fear to forget keys and other items  left behind when leaving the home, car, office …

‘Already seen’ also applies to the concept itself, such kind of intelligent, reminding bag concept designs have been around for a while, unfortunately not one of them made it into retail.

To compensate for the forgetfulness of the bags owner, RFID scanning and LilyPad processing helps to keep track of the stuff inside the Deja Vu bag.

Each time a (FRID) tagged item goes into or out of the bag, the movement is registered. Up to 5 items can be managed from the Deja Vu bag. The status of items inside the bag can be quickly checked with a squeeze of a soft button – checked-in items are visualized by lighting up a corresponding LED.

Instead of rummaging through the bag to check if this and that is there a simple button press indicates how many items are on board bag – cool.

Click over to check it out, to get inspired and it shouldn’t be a big deal to upgrade your favorite bag with some intelligence to give you pace of mind about misplaced stuff.

Although the girls fabricated a lady bag I can very well imagine to have such smart assistant in boys bags because boys are as forgetful as girls when it comes to the small but essential stuff in a bag.

[via: FashioningTech]