Wallets help you manage your money

[gallery] Researchers at MIT's media lab are exploring ways in which technology can be embedded into our wallets to help us manage our spending habits.

"The widespread adoption of credit and debit cards means, for many people, the cashless society is already a reality. However, this means the simple system of checking how much cash you’ve got in your wallet before making a purchase is no longer an accurate reflection of your finances, making it all too easy to succumb to temptation and overextend yourself financially. The Proverbial Wallet project at MIT is looking at “un-abstracting virtual assets” with wallets that provide tactile feedback that reflects a person’s current financial state."

There are three concepts:

1. Bumblebee. A wallet that uses a vibrating motor to ‘buzz’ whenever the bank processes a transaction on the user’s account
2. Mother Bear. A wallet designed to promote saving featuring a hinge that keeps the wallet shut tight when the user goes over budget
3. Peacock. A wallet that grows and shrinks relative to the user’s bank balance

Here how it works:

Continue reading on Gizmag. Images from Gizmag.

Apple patents iPhone Glove concept

Apple has filed a lot of interesting patents in the wearable space lately. One of the patents is aimed toward warming the hands of iPhone users during cold winter days. The patent "details a glove with a thin, electrically conductive, 'anti-sticky' inner layer that is able to function with a capacitive touchscreen. It also suggests the glove could have apertures on the fingertips for opening and closing the more protective outer layer. Of course, the concept is far from new -- just do a quick Google search for "iPhone gloves" to see a wide variety of choices" (Source). Image from Engadget. Read the patent at the US Patent and Trademark Office.

A smart scarf helps people affected by speech dysarthria

[gallery] Interactive media student from the University of Dundee in Scotland, Calum Pringle, has created  a project that helps aid people affected by speech dysarthria called Subtle Subtitles. Inspired by his mother, who suffers with slurred speech, the scarf helps provide additional context of the conversation while preserving the intimacy of the exchange. It uses an iPhone placed in a pocket and through a system of filtration that Pringle has developed, and existing speech recognition technologies, only the vital words in a conversation are subtitled and displayed on the iPhone.

Images from Subtle Subtitles.

Craft Punk fur-studded Fendi guitars

[gallery] One of my favorite designers, Moritz Waldemeyer, creates stage and electronic performance wear for a growing number of artists ranging from Bono to Rihanna to OK Go. One of his many outstanding projects includes a collaboration with OK Go and Fendi which resulted in a fantastical fur-studded laser-shooting guitar. The guitars will certainly bring out the rockstar in you.

Here's how the project is described from the Design Miami website: Design Miami/ and Fendi partnered last April to produce the highly acclaimed Craft Punk project in Milan during Salone del Mobile. Craft Punk built upon the Design Performance program launched in 2007, which was intended to showcase ‘design in action’ and to allow Design Miami / visitors to gain appreciation for the process underlying the creation of experimental design. For Craft Punk we invited ten designers and studios to create craft-based work in front of live audiences inside Spazio Fendi, commingling radical design with fashion, music and video. For Design Miami / 2009, we are advancing our project with Fendi even further by presenting an exciting collaboration between tech-designer Moritz Waldemeyer and pop-sensation Ok Go. Moritz has intervened upon the selection of Gibson guitars, customizing them with laser lights and Fendi materials, merging the handcraft tradition of the Fendi brand with futuristic, luminous elements. When played, the guitars’ lasers interact with a video wall and leave traces that illustrate the music in real time.The lasers emulate the strings of the guitar and the vibrations transmit beautiful visual interpretations of the sound, extending the performers’ musical expression into the space around them. The guitars become like musical paintbrushes that produce synesthetic experiences for viewers. This project stands as an exemplar of the ways in which the fingers of contemporary design extend without boundaries into every field of cultural production. Ok Go will perform onsite during the show, experimenting with the instruments for the first time. After the show, the guitars will be given to Ok Go to use on their upcoming tour.

Images from waldemeyer.com, Flickr (Ian Witlen) and the deli. For more info on Moritz Waldemeyer, visit his site.

Even more light-up clothing

[gallery] However long it's been around in the wearable tech field, there seems to have been an explosion of light-up clothing in the news these days (read an earlier post about this topic). Now, I'm still not convinced that illuminating clothing is the best use of wearable technology, but it's tough to ignore all of the hype form celebreties performing and walking down the red carpet in illuminating clothing to DIY hackers creating Light Bright LED garments.

Here's some of the hype:

• According to talk2myshirt.com, there's a trend in light-up clothing including the Light Bright LED vest created by Erik Johnson that includes a total of 1,536 three color (RGB) LEDs
• Recently, Cute Circuit has created a variety of celebrity dresses including a design for Francesca Rosella and a light-up dress for singer Katy Perry for an event that she attended at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Met Costume Institute Gala
• Rihanna and Moritz Waldemeyer lit up the stage with an LED dress for her ‘Last Girl On Earth tour‘
• Fashion designer Zaldy created outfits for the likes of Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears or Jennifer Lopez designed for Michael Jackson’s ‘This is It tour’ his complete stage outfit including a illuminated Tuxedo for the ‘Billie Jean’ performance.

I'm still waiting for that killer light-up app that brings meaning to the functionality. Perhaps it will come from the $15 million consortium of leading companies and institutes in lighting and flexible electronics like Holst Centre/TNO, IMEC, Freudenberg, TU Berlin, Ohmatex under the lead of Philips with it’s inventive technology called ‘Lumalive‘. According to talk2myshirt "PLACE-it, the short form for ‘Platform for Large Area Conformable Electronics by InTegration‘ is a newly formed initiative under the umbrella of the European Commission under its Seventh Framework Program." I hope to see some real innovation come out of this research.

An actually cool light-up solution is a stage costume made and designed by Wei-Chieh Shih. According to fashioningtech, "the nylon suit is embedded with 200 laser diodes, transforming the performer into a mobile light show."

Now we're getting somewhere...

Images from talk2myshirt.com and fashioningtech.com.

Turning energy into beauty

[gallery] Student Mae Yokoyama from the Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design created this beautiful piece made almost entirely of solar panels. What I love about this work is that she allows the size and rigidity of the circuit components to inform the structure of the necklace and leaves them exposed to create the aesthetic.

The "collar is made of solar panels, accumulating energy during daytime. When the sun goes down a string of pearls is illuminated, turning the functional look of the solar panels into a subtle and fashionable necklace." Continue reading at Konstfack.

Photos by Andreas Nyquist and Mae Yokoyama, from Konstfack.