The world of fashion design always welcomes the irrational, the provocative side of creativity unlike technology which loves to be strict, definable and playing along the rules and laws.

Where does this leaves us when we talk about wearable, fashionable technology? Maybe something like the Speaker Vest with 8″ Sub-woofer created by Joe Andolina a Software engineer by day, artist by night – according to his own words.

His mind blowing, eardrum scattering speaker vest design features a set of two amplified motorcycle speakers just off the shoulders. A low-profile 8″ sub-woofer not only give off the deepest sound waves but doubles as back massage during the really low notes of your favorite song.

All that sound power needs some electrical power which is provided the a specially designed power belt containing 10 rechargeable cells.

Best of all – Joe is offering this one-off Speaker Vest via his Etsy store for US$ 900.- Not too bad for a one-of-a-kind Haute Couture garment.

You think this is over-the-top? Think again – how about people having their car trunk full of audio amplifier and sub-woofer – driving around with their eardrum scattering vehicles?

[via: Technabob]

The Bio Circuit vest is a interesting concept design created by two students at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Dana Ramler and Holly Schmidt. Bio Circuit provides a sound (e)scape in sync with the biological state of the wearer.

As parameter of the biological state serves the heart rate which is slower and even when relaxed and calm and goes up with the stress feeling, excitement and anxiety.

These different emotional cycles we pass through every day can be enhanced or influenced by sound, be it music of different types or sounds from our environment like birds, the flow of water which is associated with calm or the city sound scape of traffic, people walking and talking.

Depending on ones stimulus preferences these emotional playlists will be automatically selected according the heart rate from an MP3 player and reproduced via a speaker integrated into the collar of the Bio Circuit vest.

The collar design ensures a certain degree of privacy, shielding part of the surroundings but does not block out the space around.

While researching for last weeks Soundie DIY article I found the Textile Synthesizer made by Jeannine Han and Dan Riley at the Swedish School of Textiles, a highly interesting concept that transforms clothing into a MIDI interface.

Jeannine embed touch sensors, similar to the ones used in iPod and other touch screens into the textile. An AVR micro-controller with special touch-sensing code converts the hand gestures along the garment into musical commands for the music generator that actually produces the sound.

The textile sensory area stretches from the neck to the waist area producing smooth values smooth over the entire range. This allows to create harp sounds, piano sounds, or almost any sound that has been done up to now in the music world.

The textile synthesizer was designed by Jeannine for the ‘… traveling nomad who wishes to communicate with other nomads, sound is inspired by nature and reacts when someone comes close or touches the garment.’

Dan Riley, the technical wizard in this project, has already set this mind into finding ways to control the music better. I must say what the duo has done so far is quite impressive as you can see in the video below.

The Textile Synthesizer garment can be seen at the Nordic Museum in Stockholm until June 2010.

[via: Physorg]

Inspired by the wave of illuminated clothing used by artists I looked around the creative wearable electronic community for other music related clothing.

My search came up with the Accouphene Tuxedo created by Vincent Leclerc, Joanna Berzowska and the XS labs crew back in 2006. The idea behind the Accouphene Tuxedo is to ‘…  create a 3D sonic environment around the human body that can be activated and modulated through movement of the hands and the twisting and compression of the cloth.‘

13 soft speakers, embroidered in the shape of a coil with highly conductive yarn generate sound by pulsing energy through the coils which are activated when running a magnet over these coils.

The magnets are integrated into the sleeves of the jacket which will trigger a sound when the arms move along the jackets front.

From where is the sound coming? Every speaker generates a weak magnetic field that reacts to a strong magnet when they come in close proximity.

The strength and distance of the magnet determines the amplitude of the sounds. By pulsing the embroidered coils at different frequencies the Accouphene jacket can play different notes.

This site has links to the electronic circuit diagram which is based around the an Atmel 8-bit RISC microcontroller and the firmware code used for the Accouphene jacket as a starting point for your own sound generating clothing project.

Although the sound capabilities of this design is not for everyones ears, the Accouphene concept can serve as inspirational starting point for other sound generating clothing for a new generation of pop artists.

[via: Electricfoxy]

Korean based Aza Extremes has a range of Wearable Audio products under the brand ‘Sound walk‘ which are essentially body harness and bags with integrated audio systems bringing the audio to activities where listening via earphones is not advisable for safety reasons or for the fact that one might want to enjoy music while still staying connected to the surroundings.

There are some great looking jackets on the market that just provide this but a jacket for winter sports might not be always something one can wear all year round.

Powered by 2xAAA batteries and able to connect to any personal audio device via a 3.5mm plug, the sound harness should be able to give decent sound.

I have seen quite some motorbike riders having ‘boomboxes’ mounted somewhere on their bike, entertaining people around them. I think the use of Sound wave’s wearable audio jacket for motorbike riders would be a better and more personal listening experience.

Although not the most sexiest and fashionable looking products in the wearable electronic department, such products do highlight the value wearable technologies add to achieve more convenience and freedom for people who want to use their personal electronic devices.

The Sound walk Motorbike Audio Jacket retails for $96.60 by this online store.

Based on many discussions I had, people put function before looks in certain situations as long as the functional value is perceived higher than the esthetically importance.

But designers should keep in mind: function should still look decent and this is what I think Aza Extremes has accomplished with the Sound wave Wearable Audio range.

I am somewhat in the summer – sun – fun mood, dreaming from hanging around without particular purpose and enjoying the weather. Not yet though, still some weeks to go but I got something I might take with me for those days: a BoomBag.

Found them by ShinyShack, they look cute and are the least expensive speaker bags I have seen so far. Sure, I haven’t listen to the sound quality, I would not expect HiFi sound but then, for such a low price point it’s more the (summer) fun element, getting soft tunes from the little bag while hanging around lazy in the great and bright outdoors.

These brightly colored bags come in a tote style and a Walkman style, looking a bit retro and bring back memories how portable music player looked in the distant past.

The Walkman style has one and the tote style two speakers integrated. Unzip the bag and plug in any MP3 player into the audio plug inside and enjoy your music without the need of earplugs.

The speaker(s) use the power from the MP3 player so there are no extra batteries required. If you’re not in the mood for music, you’ve still got room in the bag to carry your bits and pieces in.

The tote style BommBag measures 30x15x10cm (11.8×5.9×3.9″) and is yours for £19.95 ($39.79), the Walkman BoomBag measures 15x11x5cm (5.9×4.3×2″) costing just £9.95 ($19.84). Both styles come in three colors and are available via ShinyShack.com

BoomBoxes are something from the distant past (80s), BoomBags start to emerge in the market recently.

BoomJackets or in this case a Hoodie give the ‘Boom’ a new twist of listening to music without blocking the ears completely to stay aware about the surroundings when out on the streets.

The ‘Hood.e’ is a design concept of Tim Dubitsky who created it as a present for his nephew who walks a dangerous route to school that crosses busy thoroughfares.

As Tim observes correctly, earphones block out all sounds around us which can lead to dangerous situations and even accidents.

Tim Dubitsky didn’t release any information on how the speakers are integrated in the hoodie, if the speaker can go through washing machine or dry-cleaned cycles or if the speakers are detachable.

We put forward the design challenge to our creative readership to come up with a solution for a washing machine proof wearable speaker or a concept where the wearable speaker system can be detached during cleaning.

I can give you one hint: Nike had as part of their ACG range a CommJacket on the market for a short time (back in 2005) where the small speaker unit was attached via simple but effective snap buttons at the collar of the outdoor Jacket.

Creating wearable, detachable speaker is not as impossible as it might look at first.

Any other brainstorming ideas for a wearable speaker in clothing is very welcome in our comments

[source: core77 via Gizmodo]