Solar power for clothing seems to be a hot item at the moment. We have posted the last few weeks numerous articles about the use of solar cell in clothing.

It turns out the German Hohenstein Institute is working for some time on a project called ‘Solartex‘ to explore the usability of solar cells in clothing.

On the upcoming Avantex, a International Forum for Innovative Apparel Textiles in Germany held from 10 to 12 June, the Hohenstein Institute will present a Jeans jacket with integrated solar cells to power electronic devices like MP3 player or cell phones.

The Hohenstein Institute optimized flexible solar panels and connection elements to fulfill all aspects and requirements of garments. The optimized solar panels and connections are mechanical robust to the extend that this Jeans Jacket can be washed in a conventional household washing machine without removing the solar panel or connector.

High attention was paid in view of manufactuerability of the seamless integration of the solar technology to ensure that this and similar Solar Jackets can be produced in quantities. This let us hope to see very soon ‘every-day-jackets’ with solar power generation capabilities.

You might think the energy output of such a small panel can not be that high, you might be right but being able to extend just a little bit the play time or talking time of your cell phone ‘free of charge’ is not bad either – right?

If you visit the Avantex 2007, you can find the sun capturing Jeans Jacket in hall 3.1 booth A23.

A few days ago we posted about Fitright’s China Coin and mentioned 12 functions are supported to control the iPod.

Up to now we talked about 5 functions that are used in most of the iPod compatible Clothing and Bags. Many of our readers asked us what other functions are supported by the China Coin.

To clarify this, we have the following overview:

This multiple functionality of each of the 5 keys are part of the iPod control incterface which is supported by other remote controls as well.

The China Coin works essentially in the same way as the ‘standard’ 5 Key remote control = in total 12 different functions.