Researcher at  ETH Zurich’s Electronics Laboratory develop a electronic stress assistant which will monitor stress levels in everyday life aiming to prevent burnout and depression more effectively.

Bert Arnrich, Cornelia Setz, Gerhard Tröster and their teams worked out indicators to determine stress levels, including the skin conductance on the fingers, the heart and breathing rates and the amount of the stress hormone cortisol in saliva.

A study including over 30 volunteers which have been put under stress revealed that the stress assistant was able to capture 83 percent of the stress cases correctly based on skin conductance.

This is due to the fact that the body secretes more sweat when under stress, especially on the palms of the hand and soles of the feet. As a result the conductance of the skin is increased.

Although skin conductance provides high accuracy it has to be complemented with other measurements to achieve a higher level of reliability. On the work agenda of the teams is to further develop special sensors and make them more comfortable to wear, possible integrating them into special clothing or underwear.

One suggestion is to include measuring skin conductance on feet since the inner side of the feet react similarly to the palm of the hand, i.e. with increased perspiration. Appropriate sensors could be integrated into normal socks.

Possible application fields for the  stress detecting socks would be for example firefighter who work under time pressure and high mental strain or in the medical area for patients who suffer from manic depressive disorders.

[source]

Apple, one of the most innovative companies in modern history with an excellent track record of turning traditional business up-side-down seems to have set their eyes on the next business to transform: Fashion

The resent announcement circling around the Internet of Apple hiring a wearable technology expert in the person of Richard DeVaul could mean more support not only from Apple but other companies towards the wearable electronic technology and product development.

Richard DeVaul holds a PhD. in Media Arts & Sciences from MIT where he worked on new human-computer interaction techniques for wearable, mobile, and portable applications.

He is also founder & President at AWare Technologies which offers simple yet highly effective fitness monitor/measurement techniques around the iPhone/iPod and it’s own, small and wearable activity monitoring devices.

According to the Computer World article ‘DeVaul will be working under Jonny Ive in a secret lab focused on wearable computing technology where only seven people besides Ive and CEO Steve Jobs know what he is doing.‘

I am very curious about the developments by Apple but also what ripples this appointment and commitment of Apple towards wearable technology development will have by other companies in the technology and the clothing industry.

Maybe we are witnessing the emergence of iShoes, iDress, iJackets, iShirts, …….

[via: Computer World]

We stay in the textile music area with today’s article introducing ‘Undercover‘ a blanket containing a system of 24 wireless speakers for the ultimate and intimate music experience.

Interaction Designer Dana Gordon loves to combine textiles with technology as her innovative portfolio of projects show.

The ‘Undercover’ music blanket is designed not only to listen to music but also to let you feel it’s vibrations radiating from the speakers.

I love the Undercover sound blanket concept but even more the design details Dana add to it. The concealment of the speakers with wireless module is beautiful (see image below) and the volume controls are adorable cute.

The volume controllers are designed to suit a blanket’s natural cuddling behavior. The upper corners (‘the blanket’s ears’) control the volume. Pull the right one for higher volume and the left one for lower.

Wrap yourself into the Undercover and emerge into the ultimate sound experience.

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]

Kanjun Qiu created at the MIT Media Lab for the High-Low Tech research group the beautifully designed Soundie, a hoodie with touch sensitive areas triggering sound and light effects.

The Soundie is Kanjun’s exploration into eTextiles and the LilyPad system. The result is the Soundie, one of the best demonstrator/prototypes I have come across in my restless search for wearable electronic developments.

This project combines most to the eTextile elements and techniques, giving an excellent overview about the use of textile optimized components and technologies.

The complexity of building the Soundie is medium as Kanjun has published a very detailed overview on Instructables.

You will find every step carefully explained including a comprehensive material list starting with the LilyPad main board, power and light modules, conductive fabric and thread, a speaker module and a piece of clothing you want to upgrade with light and sound.

The Instructables includes the Arduino source code to get you started quickly and to serve as basis for further hacking to your own liking.

Kanjun’s motivation to create the Soundie was  ‘… to inspire other applications. The Soundie was designed  with purely artistic intentions and with absolutely no practical applications in mind.’

Device controlling bags have been around for a long time offering to those who got their hands-on experience with such bags a convenient way to operate the basics on cellphones, iPods and other MP3 player.

The growing number of interactive backpack styles give choices for function and taste. The function of device control on bags is becoming mainstream adding another feature choice next to zippers, headphone cable eyelets, special audio pockets or water bottle compartment on our bags.

This is of course good news for consumer as the days of incredible high premium prices for a audio control function are gone.

UK fashion brand TOG24, already known for making cool looking winter jackets with audio control has some very affordable, techie looking backpacks in their collection like the Martel Music Backpack selling for £29.95 ($44.60)

Remember, using this type of backpack with remote control and headphone port on the shoulder strap not only makes it convenient to quickly change songs, volume or pick up a call, it also gives an additional layer of protection to your precious little devices which can be kept safely inside the bag while operated via the bag.

If you are one of the growing number of people who love to hike around the great outdoors whenever there is an opportunity you might know that having free hands is the best insurance to balance down a trail, cross water ways or venturing through dense Forrest vegetation.

At the same time you don’t want to let go of your digital gear like cellphones or music player but headphone cables get caught up in the vegetation, the phone in the bag rings at the moment where it is most inconvenient to stop and dig it out of the pocket or bag.

If all these points sound familiar to you, here is a solution from Canadian brand DEW (Digital Equipment Wear), the Digital Gear Quiver.

It’s a shoulder strap with wallet pocket and a pocket for your digital gear with inSound controls, a soft control keypad based on Fibretronic’s CONNECTEDwear. The CONNECTEDwear modular system connects almost to any phone, iPod or MP3 player and can be conveniently controlled from the outside of the Quiver.

To top of the convenience and practicality of the Quiver, a earphone cord management system will guide and protect the headphone cable which comes out of the Quiver just where they are needed, at the neck area.

Practical, functional but not necessarily something for the high street fashionista, the Digital Gear Quiver can be ordered by Small Dog Electronics for $84.99

Shannon Henry, owner of the Polymath Design Lab transformed a hand-sewn tulle wrap skirt into a star light sparkling evening gown by integrating fiber optics and lights that change color in response to the speed and direction of the wearer’s movement.

At the center of the starlight skirt is a LilyPad which translates the motion sensors input into different colors of the stars placed throughout the skirt, creating a dynamic light pattern.

The complete eTextile system is sewn on to the purple organza under-layer of the skirt parting nicely the technical part from it to allow a nice textile flow of the outer skirt but also diffuses, soften the light point a bit giving the magical effect.

Although Shannon’s design is a bit more complex than the one we posted yesterday about, it still is stunning in it’s simplicity of making it but equally amazing, magical in the appearance and the effect a bit of textile illumination adds to clothing.

A beautiful, sensual, magical use of textile illumination.

[via: Switch]

Fashion design student Kristi Kuusk, currently studying at USP (University of São Paulo) is lighting up her creations – literally – by adding LED sparkle to a crocheted skirt.

The twist on Kristi’s design: the sparkle comes only to life when the skirt and a ring come together. Her concept of ‘miracles start to happen when two separate parts come together‘ is made by using a magnetic switch.

Each time the ring comes near the skirts magnetic counterpart the LEDs, symbolizing a snow flake, will give off it’s shine, imitating the snow’s shiny effect in the darkness.

Aspiring fashion designer like Kristi and many others start to explore the options and possibilities electronic technologies have to offer to create new visual effects on clothing.

Over many years, static materials have been used to add glimmer and glitter, to add contrast and eye caching effects on clothing.

Electronic technologies will not take over the whole fashion world but they will find it’s valuable place next to other fashion decoration elements and techniques.

Sport enthusiasts know that sooner or later discover that parts or their body can not cope with their enthusiasm, leading to dislodged joints and painfully strained extremities.

Fortunately, wearable electronic and the inventive mind of Marcus Moche, Alexandra Morgan and David Schmidt, currently students at the Northeastern University College of Engineering, might provide a solution in form of a smart shirt.

The team developed a Data Logging Shirt containing three motion sensors placed on strategic places in the shirt. The sensors are connected via conductive thread to a serial port connector on the back which in turn connects to a computer for data crunching and visualization.

In future, refined prototypes will replace the serial connector with a wireless module making the data logging shirt completely independent to be used on the sports ground.

The idea for a data logging shirt comes from the Baseball area where elbow injuries incur losses of millions of dollars each season due to the no-show of injured players. The data-logging shirt can help pitchers preventing elbow injuries while providing an electronic analysis of pitching mechanics.

Pitchers become more susceptible to injury when they lose consistency in their mechanics, the physics of how they throw the baseball, pitch after pitch.

Compared with current methods of analyzing mechanics which require pitchers to perform in laboratory settings, the data-logging shirt provides a lightweight solution which does not interfere with the pitching motion and is even machine washable.

The team plans to integrate more sensors like gyroscopes that will pinpoint the positions of body parts over time.

Performance and motion monitoring sport clothing is an area highly interesting as trainer and support personnel at competitive sport events can observe at which point their stars go over the physical limits as opposed to go just very close to the limits.

[via: Boston Globe]