Generative Wardrobe by designer Alex Dodge is a concept study that explores various wearable technologies to form a complete system from head to the toes.

Starting with a highly futuristic head cap called ‘Sleep Talker‘ envisioned to allow the broadcasting of one’s unconscious experience = dreams on social networks. Facebook with a dream status update – how does this sound?

Haptic-Synth is an undergarment type of thin shirt embedded with with an array of Haptic-Synth ‘cells’. Each cell contains a compression touch sensor coupled with a miniature haptic feedback actuator. The Haptic-Synth shirt acts as gesture based input and feedback device for the complete wearable technology system.

A light, cross-seasonal jacket called Wearable Interface explores the possibilities of embedding mobile technologies in a ardent serving as CPU for future wearable technology systems.

The jacket’s on-board processor with connections to USB ports, GPS, accelerometers, microphones, temperature or photo sensors, can be trained and programmed to interact with a range of other devices.

Last but not least interesting is the Powerstep, a pair of nicely design shoes converting mechanical energy via piezoelectric ceramic components inside the sole into electric current with each step.

[TomsGuide via GizmoWatch]

We have seen our share on interactive gloves ranging from ‘just’ lighting up’ to the control of the virtual world on the computer. Gloves seems to be a prime target when it comes to electrify our wardrobe.

The Drum Glove System designed by Arnoud den Besten, Kristo de Pooter, Sam Vesters and Thomas Letermea, a group of students at the Artesis University College in Antwerp, setting the functionality level very high in the musical glove design concept category.

Drumming with your finger tips on the table is getting a complete different meaning and acoustic when you wear a pair for these Drum Gloves.

The Drum Glove system is a design concept study which envisions to have a full drum kit at your finger tips, controlled by the electronic in the backpack which also contains speakers and audio processing.

The team also imagines to enable multiple users to combine their (finger tip) drumming creating an out of this world drummer experience.

To demonstrate the how the Drum gloves could/will work the team made a video hammering away with their finger tips on a table top – impressive.

Sadly most of these cool design concepts never make it to the stores so if you really like that you might need to walk down the DIY lane.

[via: Designboom]

Imagine a pickpocket trying to steal your wallet but instead of getting your money he or she is in for a 220-volt jolt!

We have seen before the use of high voltage shock clothing like the No-Contact jacket designed for security and other law enforcement personal to give of an electric shock when touched by someone.

Shyam Chaurasia, a resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi district in India gives another twist to this shocking, wearable design by giving an electrifying slap to pickpockets with his ‘Power-packed Jeans‘ design.

He designed a kit using some thin copper wires concealed as stitches on the back pockets of a pair of jeans, capacitors that collect and store electricity, electromagnetic switches and a 3-volt battery. The circuitry transforms DC power into high voltage AC power (similar to a electronic inverter used in EL T-shirts for example).

To activate the pocket power, flip the switch and the pickpockets will be in for the shock of their life.

Although his design might not be flawless at this point like when the jeans go wet what happens then or you forget to switch off before reaching yourself into the pocket -  I am sure a bit of thinking can make this work without the risk of having a shocking experience.

In any case, the idea is what counts and I find it brilliant, especially when visiting crowded places the risk of pocket snatching is high. The same principle might become also handy when integrated into a handbag, the prime target of pick pockets around the world.

How technology can enhance fashion design has been nicely demonstrated by Tine Beez, a graduate of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design with her ‘Fashion meets Technology‘ active wear collection unveiled last May.

The inspiration of her collection is drawn by the mountaineering legend George Mallory, using natural fiber combined with cutting edge wearable technologies to create  functional and visually appealing outdoor fashion for very chilly days.

While designing the ‘Fashion meets Technology’ Tine studied carefully the needs of mountaineers while in extreme cold environments which require thick layers of clothing but at the same time being able to move and act unobstructed.

Natural healing fibers such as Milk- Pearl and Aloe Vera help moisturize the skin and stimulate blood circulation in the outfit’s inner layers while Nano-technology is used to enhance wind protection and waterproofing in the outer layers without changing the fabric’s natural properties.

To protect against hitting rocks or other obstacles while in the rough outdoors, shock absorbent pads from d3o have been integrated into the garments to assist in safety and accident prevention.

Besides the comfortably considerations in the clothing design Tine did not forget to comfort the should of the wearer by adding the ConnectedWear system from Fibretronic to the outfit.

ConnectedWear is adding iPod control into clothing allowing to maneuver through the music collection while the iPod itself stays safe and warm deep inside the mountaineering clothing, away from the harsh environment of Mt. Everest.

[via: Dexigner]

Illuminated handbags which light up the inside of bags during night have been around for some time, either as actual products or as concept design. I actually wonder why this functionality has not yet reached a wider attention from manufacturer and consumers.

It looks to me quite practical to have a bit of light deep inside a handbag when searching for keys or other small items. Not only once I have seen ladies emptying their bags just do find what they are looking for.

Maybe because light in a bag means another battery to take care off to make sure it is charged when needed.

Italian designer Nicole Osella might have a solution. She designed the ‘Bulbo‘, an add-on module which could be used to retro fit any bag you have at your disposal and it generates it’s own electrical energy for the light.

‘Bulbo’ is a ribbon with LEDs and can be placed inside a bag. A silicon bulb on one side with a clip allows to attach the ‘Bulbo’ to any bag. This silicon bulb contains a sphere that will levitate outside the bag, harnessing kinetic energy which is stored in a battery inside the silicon bulb. Comes night the stored energy provides power to the LEDs inside the bag.

Simple, smart, universal and innovative – I love such concepts.

[via: Ubergizmo]

As I pointed out many times before, I am a dedicated follower of the sun, never leave out the opportunity to get my daily does of sun rays for my body and my solar bag, a companion that is always with me, harvesting tirelessly sun power for my little gadgets.

Designer Weng Jie created recently a concept design putting flexible solar panels into a camera strap. These straps, which every DSL user knows, are wide to distribute the heavy camera load to make it more comfortable to carry around the camera. This wide size and the outwards to the light/sun pointing surface makes them a perfect place for utilizing it as a solar power harvesting area.

Weng envisions to have storage batteries at each end of the strap and a DC out connector to feed electrical power to the cameras battery.

I did a quick surface are calculation, based on his sketch, usable for placing a flexible solar panel would be good enough to generate 6V with 100mA using standard flexible solar panels. Quite a lot power to generate via the camera strap.

I love the brilliance of this idea, again using common items of our daily life and spice it up with a bit of soft technology.

The solar power camera strap is only a concept design right now but I am hopeful to see this in the camera accessory section in retail shops soon.

[via: Yanko Design]

Designer, artist Lauren McCarthy, currently an MFA student in the UCLA Design / Media Arts program developed ‘Tools for Improved Social Interacting‘, a series of wearable devices that use sensors to condition the behavior of the wearer to better adapt to expected social behaviors.

An interesting design concept that uses technology enhanced clothing to assist, train and support the wearer to ‘behave’ according to social expectations in a given life situation.

At first you might think: ‘for what on earth do I need social interaction aid in my clothing!’. Does our increasing dependance on computer aided socializing via Facebook or Twitter make us unable to interact with real persons?

This might become a problem in future but Lauren’s ‘Tools for Improved Social Interacting’ could proof to provide an interesting design for persons who need to (re)learn social interaction due to physical or physiological problems.

‘Tools for Improved Social Interacting’ include the Happiness Hat that trains the wearer to smile more. The smile size is detected via an enclosed bend sensor attached to the cheek. If the wearer stops smiling a servo motor moves a metal spike into the head proportional to the degree of smile.

The Body Contact Training Suit requires the wearer to maintain frequent body contact with another person. If the wearer stops touching someone for too long, static noise begins to play through headphones sewn into hood. A capacitance sensing circuit measures skin to skin body contact via a metal bracelet sewn into the sleeve.

The Anti-Daydreaming Scarf contains a proximity sensor detects if the wearer is engaged in conversation with another person. While he/she is, the scarf vibrates periodically to remind the wearer to pay attention and stop daydreaming.

Three interesting concepts which use our second skin, our clothing as medium to assist and to influence our social interaction – inspirational and expandable.

Lauren McCarthy’s ‘Tools for Improved Social Interacting’ can be found at SIGGRAPH 2010 from Sunday, 25 July through Thursday, 29 July 2010 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

WAb (Wearable Absence) is an interactive garment connecting to a database wireless via a mobile device to enhance the wearers emotional stage with prerecorded memories in audio/visual from.

The WAb garment is fitted with a range of senors that detect heart rate and skin conductivity which allow to calculate the stress or relaxed level, excitement or balanced physical stage.

A database is loaded with audio (music) and visual (photos) content the owner of the WAb garment categorizes to recreate memories associated to different  physical conditions.

Bio sensors send continuously the physical condition of the wearer to the database which returns the associated audio/visual stimulus to the garments integrated speaker and display, recreating memories based on the current physical condition.

We select clothing based not only on functional needs we choose clothing to a high degree out of emotional reasons. Adding additional emotional elements as demonstrated in the WAb design or other memory rich clothing concepts is a logical next step in fashion enabled through  wearable technologies.

Clothing that gives us stimulus based on or changing mood swings and not based on a pre-set time line or play-list has a magical, surprising factor.

WAb is a collaboration project between Barbara Layne, Director of Studio subTela at Hexagram-Concordia in Montreal and Janis Jefferies, Artistic Director of the Digital Studios at Goldsmiths College in London.

[via: Fashioning Technology]

Connecting to yesterdays article of solar power harvesting fabrics for sun management outside I found an interesting design concept for sun light management indoors.

The Energy curtain designed by Anders Ernevi, Margot Jacobs, Ramia Mazé, Carolin Müller, Johan Redström and Linda Worbin at the Interactive Institute, a Swedish experimental media research institute that combines expertise in art, design and technology.

The Energy Curtain is a window shade woven from a combination of textile, solar-collection and light-emitting materials.

During the day, the shade can be drawn to give shade and to limit the heat coming inside a room and during the evening, the collected energy is returned as a glowing pattern on the inside of the shade, illuminating the room with the excess light blocked out during intensive sun shine.

Such design is another win-win solution, using a everyday object, adding soft solar panels on one side and integrate soft textile illumination elements on the other side.

As with many other of such fabulous creative ideas – the commercialization is lagging behind. The advantages of the Energy Curtain design is very obvious I do not understand why this design has not been picked up yet for commercialization.

Maybe another gap in the value chain of (very) smart textile designs? Maybe these great design ideas do not make it into the awareness of potential companies or investors to take it and had with it to the market?

Maybe talk2myShirt can contribute in filling some gaps by introducing these smart designs to our readers from the industry. I would be a highly potential customer of the Energy Curtain, having many days of sunshine at my apartment windows.

According to an article from SiliconIndia, students at Nirma University designed a helmet that doubles as electricity generator. How? Firstly there are solar panels covering the helmet converting solar energy into electrical energy.

As backup power generator for rainy days or after sunset the students Pragnesh Dudhaiya and Aalok Bhatt envision the use of wind turbines integrated into the helmet. Smart idea but I am not so sure if we can call this also practical as a wind turbine has some ‘moving parts’ that most likely will make some noise on/in your head when the turbines work full speed.

Personally I like very much the – I guess – flexible solar panel cover for biker helmets. Most of the time biking is done by reasonable good and sunny weather where solar energy is plentiful. Maybe this concept is not necessarily something city or short distance commuters will find useful but I have some friends who spend many hours and days on bike trips, preferable when the weather is fine, and complain about batteries running out in their GPS devices which they find essential on those extended trips.

Think about – in most countries helmets for bikers are mandatory so why not using that area on the helmets to something useful, giving an occasional charge to devices while far away from any power grid.

If you are interested into how wind turbine in a helmet could work, check out this design concept by Malaysian designer Wai Hoong Leng, the Wind-Helmet.

[via: Gizmowatch]