A garment that reacts to your breath

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Ontario College of Art and Design student, Hilary Hayes, has recently shared with me one of her latest wearable technology projects. The Breathe Project is a beautiful scarf that reacts to your breath. As you exhale, LEDs integrated into the scarf begin to glow in sequence. Built using a Lilypad Arduino, temperature sensor, conductive thread, bright white LEDs, purple wool yarn, here's how she describes it: "The Breathe Project is focused on creating awareness of our own breath and the breath of others as a way of reminding and being reminded of the delicacy and life force of each other and of ourselves."

I love how the interaction is subtle yet helps facilitate a new form of expression and helps keep us connected to one of the most fundamental and centering experiences: our breathing patterns.

View the Breathe Project and more of Hilary Hayes work on her portfolio site. Images from the Breathe Project.

Ping: a social networking garment

[gallery] Alas! I recently completed a project that I've been working on called Ping. It's a garment that connects to your Facebook account wirelessly and from anywhere. It allows you to stay connected to your friends and groups of friends simply by performing natural gestures that are built into the mechanics of the garments we wear. Lift up a hood, tie a bow, zip, button, and simply move, bend and swing to ping your friends naturally and automatically. No phone, no laptop, no hardware. Simply go about your day, look good and stay connected.

I'm investigating three important and emerging areas in wearable technology through this project:

Connection to larger systems The garment investigates ways to connect to larger software systems that can add more functionality and longevity to the experience while offering a new platform for communication and expression.

Aesthetics Rather than simply attaching technology to clothing, the project investigates garments that have electronics built directly into them resulting in a new aesthetic of form and behavior that become a core part of our expression, our identity, and our individuality.

Marketability Very few wearable technology projects successfully target consumers outside of the sports, medical and military fields. We are just not there yet. The project aims to generate market desirability for a wide variety of people to use in everyday life.

Project Site: Go to the project site to see the rest of the concept. Let me know what you think! I would love to hear form you.

Press: CNET, FastCompany, fashioningtech, Alison Lewis @ Smart Fabrics Conference Miami, talk2myshirt, poshspace.ru, podcastingnews.com, ecouterre.com, geeksugar.com, San Francisco Chronicle, podcastingnews.com, notcouture.com, netdiver.net, Inventor Spot, Gizmodo, Engadget, DVICE, Tuvie, TechFlash, Protect Your Bubble, Trendhunter, TechNews, Artefact, Fashion Industry Network, newwebpick.com issue #30

Interviews: AOL Stylelist, iHeartSwitch,

Connecting the body with its surroundings

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University of Applied Sciences (Berlin) fashion design student Mareike Michel has designed an interactive dress that translates the body's movement into light connecting the response with environmental surroundings. The gorgeous project is titled Klight.

"To achieve the effect, a new stretchable circuit board technology, developed by Fraunhofer IZM, was integrated into the textile. The result is a unique symbiosis of fashion and technology which combines ease and dynamism." Continue reading on mareikemichel.de.

Images from mareikemichel.de.

Personal, mobile, kinetic power generation

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Designer Mary Huang in collaboration with Jennifer Kay has created this beautiful, yet somewhat impractical wearable technology piece that explores ideas of personal, mobile power generation and kinetics titled Dandelion. I can't imagine wearing this around town, but the implementation is quite evocative. It definitely sparks conversation around the possibilities of our movement and environmental outputs generating personal and mobile power.

"Dandelion is a wearable that captures energy from wind and human movement. It is a structure of miniature windmills that embraces the wearer. It is fashion that creates an interface between nature, technology, and people." Continue reading on rhymeandreasoncreative.com.

Photos from rhymeandreasoncreative.com.

A smart hoodie that helps kids with autism

[gallery] There's a lot of discussion around wearable technology that debates the usefulness of solutions that integrate electronic functionality into garments. There are so many explorations that are short-term novelties and few that solve real and sustainable problems. Designer Leo Chao sets out to change this. His Beagle scarf is intended for medical therapy targeted to children with autism. The project is an example of solving problems that he uncovers by observing people and their context.

"Leo’s concept: the Beagle Scarf, a garment co-created with autistic children and their parents. Beagle Scarf integrates sound, smell, and texture, making it a wearable and portable medical assistance device for Autistic children who suffer from a sensory disorder where they sometimes need to be blocked or stimulated from certain senses to feel relieved,"  (source).

Continue reading on Yanko Design. Photos from Trends Update.

A dress that doubles as an eco-warning system

[gallery] Diffus founders Hanne-Louise Johannesen and Michel Guglielmi have designed and created this gorgeous dress that doubles as an eco-warning system. In collaboration with the design company and fashion designer Tine M. Jensen, embroiderer Forster Rohner and IT consultancy The Alexandar Institute, the dress titled Climate Dress includes embedded sensors that measures carbon dioxide in the air. 104 LEDs are sprinkled throughout the top of the garment and surrounded by embroidery. Light brightens and dims in a subtle "breathing" pattern to reflect how much pollution is in the air.

"The Climate Dress is made of conductive embroidery, over a hundred tiny LED lights inserted into the embroidey, a CO2 sensor and an Arduino Lilypad microprocessor. The LEDs visualize the level of CO2 in the nearby surroundings and are powered through the embroidery..." continue reading on diffus.dk.

Main image from this month's (April 2010) Surface Magazine. Other images from diffus.dk.