Dutch designer Dorith Sjardijn takes traditional crafts like carpet weaving and upgrades it with 21st Century technology.

The ‘8-bits kleed‘ is a beautiful example on how to do that in an esthetically pleasant way by tufting EL-wires into a Persian rug, creating cracks of light along the woven pattern.

The brilliance of such design is in it’s simplicity to make, even for DIY novices, and the strong aesthetic and emotional value this carpet upgrade creates.

A highly inspiring example on how to make use of a bit of soft electronic to bring a magical glow into the home.

Dorith Sjardijn teaches e-textiles at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague and is Curator at Exhibition ‘PrettySmartTextiles‘.

The long wait is over for the Pillow remote controller. A few month ago I was lamenting suggesting why brands/retailer do not pick up one of the design inspirations that have shown up for many years, DIY enthusiasts and designer that hacked their remote controller and give it a soft touch.

Brookstone has made the thinking-out-of-the-box step into a soft electronic future with the launch of a Remote Control Pillow stuffed with a universal 6-in-1 remote control which is able to talk to over 500 devices.

Finally you can hug your remote, you can sleep on it and best of all, it will be really very hard to miss place this remote controller.

The R/C pillow has a power-saving auto shut-off feature which puts the the remote functions into deep sleep after 60 seconds of inactivity.

The remote control pillow retails for $29.95 at Brookstone.

[via: Gizmodo]

One of the most extraordinary carpet designs I have seen comes from the Dutch company LAMA Concept. Called the LED Cell rug, made from pure wool felt strips with embedded LEDs that blend perfectly into the over carpet design.

I give the label ‘extraordinary’ because the designers of these carpet, Yvonne Laurysen and Erik Mantel, combined felt – believed to be one of the earliest techniques for making textiles with 21st Century eTextile technology to create this remarkable flexible carpet design.

The use of 100% pure wool felt, which is pressed and cut into strings, makes it a natural product which is non-flammable, soundproofing and water-repellent. These properties led to a showcase product for Airbus which covered the flooring of a business class cabin with the LED cell, giving a look of glowing gem stones radiating luxury and soft light.

The unique design in form of felt strings has the advantage to make rugs at any size easily and to replace simply the string where a damage on the carpet happens, no need to replace the whole carpet.

I like the simplicity of the concept and design, making the LED cell carpet a shining example of textile illumination.

Sylvania a online store dedicated to innovative LED and other lighting technologies for interior decoration offers a e-textile like light innovation in form of the ‘Lighted Placemat‘.

The ‘Lighted Placemat’ uses bright, white LEDs which run off an easy to replace CR2016 coin cell battery providing 20 hours of sparkling dinning atmosphere.

The sparkle is activated via a Push-button inside the ‘Lighted Placemat’. No need to worry about spills as these mats are treated with Scotchgard™ brand fabric protector for ease of spot cleaning.

Available in Black and Burgundy for the price of $24.99 you get a pair of those high tech place mats – not a bad deal.

A cute idea and nice example of ‘soft technology’ used to create atmosphere and a bit of magic in  our homes.

[via: ChipChick]

As the daylight hours are getting fewer it might be a good idea to bring some additional sparkle into the festive time of the year into your living room.

An expert is spicing sparkling up our outfit and living room is LumiGram which has brought sparkling tops, coats and jackets, cushion covers and even table tops.

Their latest product is the LumiTable table runner, a nice design using LumiGram’s fiber optics fabric called Luminex®

The standard size comes at 63×13 inches (160×33 cm) in nine different colors and is powered by a mains adapter 110/220V. Custom made sizes are available and can be ordered on request. The standard size goes for 159.- Euro ($195.57)

If you spill something on the LumiTable you can hand-wash the table runner with natural soap.

What I like is the magical, mysterious light effect the fiber optics fabric is emitting.

As we enter again the time of the year where we spend more time indoors it might be a good idea to look around how we can make this time as cozy as possible.

Pillows comes first to my mind as I hardly have seen any house, apartment or room that hasn’t pillows around for decorative, atmosphere creating purpose.

Why not adding a bit of magic to such pillows to make them more sensual. A pillow that radiates soft, relaxing music adds a bit of magic to your living room.

The are many shapes and styles of speaker pillows in the market to suit almost everyones taste. A great value for money is on offer by Amazon which sells the Ipod Music Speaker Pillow- Purple Butterfly Designfor $ 19.99 but there are other shapes also available like Star and Heart for the same price.

The name of the Butterfly pillow is a bit misleading as it works not only with the iPod but with any audio player with 3.5mm headphone jack. The cool part is that it has volume control built into the pillow.

Another way to bring coziness and warmth in your home is a light up pillow like the playful design of the Doggy Paws Pillow.

This cute Doggy Pawn Pillow is able to lift your spirits by glowing warmly in your hands or on your couch.

The built-in LEDs are bright enough to give reading light but soft enough to create a mystical atmosphere. The pillow magic can be switched on and off at will of course.

The  Doggy Pawn Pillow is available for $ 25.- via this online store.

Pillows are often used and decorative item and soft technology add a new dimension to them: sensual and magical. With interactive pillows around your home you are ready to enter the coming autumn/winter season.

Florence Bost is the creator of a wide range of highly interesting objects made of a hybrid between fabric and new technologies transforming such ‘simple’ items like pillows into an innovative, poetic artwork.

Her lovely range of City Pillows make discrete use of light elements such as LEDs or EL-wires in combination with beautiful design to enhance the visual and sensual experience of the pillows.

Florence inspiration comes from textile materials, colors and the possibilities todays technologies offer allowing her to create the effects she wants to achieve. According to Florence, the ‘invisible’ use of technology is the ‘real’ use of it, seeing the effect but not the technology itself.

It is very important for her not to fall into the gadget / geek side of the soft technology spectrum. The right choice of technology is what gives it the validity to the product.

Florence Bost, founder of Sable Chaud, has acquired a unique expertise in the integration of new technologies. With a formal industrial design education and 15 years of creative research, she has acquired a multidisciplinary vision and solid design experience that puts her work on the cutting edge of soft technology innovation.

She works with a team of experts from diverse domains (including trends, music, electronics, scenography, editorial, etc.) to better address the many facets of contemporary design.

Her projects most often start at the early stages of product design. She has her fingers on the pulse of technological progress, provides idea books, and prototyping.

The Butterfly design for example uses shape-memory materials that open and close the wings by responding to temperature creating the illusion of living creatures.

The City Pillows are available via this site but as Florence Bost’s objects are artworks you need to check directly with her about the price.

Nevertheless, if you have already a cool apartment our house, a City Pillow would be the perfect finishing touch for your interior decoration.

Working and blogging all day long deserves to have a good and relaxing rest. Being a bit behind with my drifting off and relaxing I had a look around for some cool and comfy pillow.

I always stay close to the soft technology and a search for ‘sound pillow’ brought up the Sound Asleep Pillow with built-in Speaker. Lying in bed and drifting off, listening to my favorite music is the best way to unwind and relax.

A Pillow with built-in Speaker might not be the best thing to have if your partner is next to you but if you are alone, this pillow is great to glide over into dream land.

Sure you could just leave your audio set switched on but the more voluminous sound is not necessarily as softly and subtle as when it comes gently out of your pillow.

Another good reason to invest in a sound pillow might be the fact (or believe) that if you learn a foreign language you are best off for good results if you listen to the language lessons in a relaxed atmosphere or during the period before you finally doze off. If this learning method is correct, the Sound Asleep Pillow offers the best solution.

Sound Asleep offers two versions, the basic version for £20.- ($ 39.50) and the Memory Foam Sound Pillow for £30.- ($ 59.25)

The Memory Foam moulds to the natural body shape which gives higher comfort and has small holes increasing air circulation and improves the sound quality

The Sound Pillow works not only with the iPod but with any MP3 player or radio as long as it has a 3.5mm stereo plug. The pillow does not need any battery as it uses the sound output of your audio device directly.

Ok – I got sleepy now and wish to have this cool Memory Foam Sound Pillow to drift off in peace

The list of interactive pillows is getting longer with the My Beating Heart pillow, a pillow that has its own heart beat.

My Beating Heart is the invention from Yury Gitman and has been available since 2005 but out of whatever reason I only ‘discovered’ it today.

Why should a pillow with it’s own heartbeat be of any use for us? Since the old ages it is common knowledge to humanity that the heartbeat is one of the most reassuring sounds we know. The heartbeat is the first sound we hear even before we are born.

Another wisdom of life says that being very close to someone like during hugging, the two hearts will start synchronizing their beats. That’s why we calm down and feel comfortable if we are in the arms of someone special. Sound like magic – right?

My Beating Heart recreates this natural magic forces by employing Artificial Intelligence and haptic design into software and hardware. A small motor at the heart of the My Beating Heart pillow is programmed to give a life-like heartbeat.

The My Beating Heart pillow is not just playing prerecorded sequences. With it’s highly sophisticated electronics and software, called by the company the “secret sauce technology” the heartbeat rhythm of this pillow gradually changes like our own heartbeat changes over time.

Hugging the pillow will turn it on and will beat it’s heart for 20 minutes. One 9-volt battery will last for 6-12 months depending of course how often you hug the pillow.

My Beating Heart realized after the launch of the ‘grown-up’ version in 2005 that many parents buying the My Beating Heart pillow for their little ones to help them gliding into a nap or into dreamland and decided to launch additional smaller sizes specific for kids.

Prices for the My Beating Heart pillows range form $34.99 up to $120.- and are available directly by MyBeatingHeart.com

This is yet another example for the growing list of interactive pillows using soft technologies. Music playing, glowing, phone call making pillows and now the relaxation pillow with a heartbeat.

Rugs that light-up seems to become a new trend for the sophisticated lifestyle.

First we saw the FootLume with EL light in a Rug to light the way in the dark and now we have the Luminoso, a Wool Rug interwoven with LEDs.

The Luminoso is a creation from Top Floor an interior design company focussed on flooring. Top Floor was founded in 1998 and has become a leading source for distinctive contemporary hand-made rugs and carpets, winning numerous awards for their designs.

Top Floor’s rug collections are created by founder and Design Director Esti Barnes.

The Luminoso rug has hundreds of tiny LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) woven into it creating an animated light pattern symbolizing a galaxy in the far distance.

I like the idea of an living, animated rug instead of a ‘death’ piece of textile lying around in my living room. Imagine the out-of-this-world atmosphere such a rug creates.

Top Floor’s rugs and carpets are made to order that means any size and color scheme is possible and the cost will be …. made to order. Check out directly with Top Floor if you like to walk on Light in your living room.

[via: Gizmodo]