A soundscape that wraps around you

Dana Gordon and Alejandro Zamudio Sanchez designed Undercover blanket for the Droog exhibit Garden of Delight. The project is an ultra soft blanket that wirelessly connects to any music source in your home and plays a soundscape as it wraps around you.

The act of wrapping yourself in sound is quite charming and calming. Even more charming are the volume controls integrated into the top corners that use a "tugging" gesture. Tug at them, much like you do when you try and pull the blanket closer to you, and it adjusts the volume. The speakers are also nicely integrated into the aesthetics of the blanket making them look much like traditional quilting buttons.

More photos of the project and the making of it found here via Danka's Flickr set.

Fibers harvest energy from movement

On the never-ending quest to find an alternative source of power that is efficient and portable, researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology are exploring piezoelectric zinc oxide nanowires that harvest energy from the wearer's natural movement. Here's how they describe it on nanoarchitecture.net:

"The researchers constructed pairs of textile fibers covered with piezoelectric zinc oxide nanowires that generate electricity in response to applied mechanical stress. The resulting current flow from many fiber pairs woven into a shirt or jacket could allow the wearer’s body movement to power a range of portable electronic devices."

Now, imagine if the nanowires are woven into energy-generating textiles that are seamlessly integrated directly into the aesthetics, cut, and flow of a garment.

Low-res soft textile displays

Maggie Orth, founder of International Fashion Machines, has been working with soft computing and e-textiles. Her project, Running Plaid, explores the use of thermochromatic inks (color changing inks) incorporated into the textiles. The behavior is a fascinating visual shift in pattern and color coming from the yarns woven into the textile itself that behaves similar to a low-res textile display.

The opportunity is ripe for creating ambient soft displays integrated directly into the aesthetics of garments. Imagine weaving in RGB threads (red, green, and blue that make up the color pixels used in a color monitor display, for instance) to create a full color low-res soft textile screen that can be woven and sewn into any shape and incorporated directly into the pattern construction of any garment.

Striking the perfect balance

Kathryn Bauer, a recent graduate of New York University's ITP program, presented a project for her master's thesis, titled Ovu, The project tracks and detects fertility easily and fashionably.

One of the many things that makes this implementation so beautiful is that she considered the form of the garment and its implied meaning for her concept. She could have just as easily implemented the idea using a leg or arm band to get it working as a proof of concept. Instead, she chose a garment that implies intimacy and sex, a perfect match for fertility tracking and its context. Kudos to Bauer for striking a perfect balance between concept, integrated intelligence, and garment connotation.

Challenging the aesthetics of circuitry

Leah Buechley, a pioneer in soft circuits and the creator of the LilyPad developers kit, has been experimenting with paper computing and circuits. Her circuits are quite beautiful and intriguing with possibility. The combination of aesthetics and interaction opportunities are endless with the freedom of simply painting circuits as if loosely sketching in a notepad. Imagine applying this technique onto garments where circuits are handpainted, silkscreened or even embroidered.

In fact, Becky Stern of Sternlab has taken this inspiration to heart by creating a piece titled "A Tribute to Leah Buechley". Using Buechley's LilyPad, she created a soft-sewn circuit that challenges circuit aesthetics by using one of the traditional garment-embellishing techniques...embroidery:

Anouk Wipprecht creates fashion using Lumalive

(image via industrialnation.nl)

Anouk Wipprecht from the Netherlands creates incredibly beautiful garments that will make you drool. Her recent work explores the uses of Lumalive. One of the many beautiful elements of her work is that she takes advantage of the implied gestures in her garments such as pulling a large collar up and over your head for protection or pulling it down around your shoulders for warmth.

What I like about this piece is that she uses these gestures as the interactions that reveal the display. But gestures aren't the only thing that should be considered, there is also context and mode. Imagine the mode a wearer is in when she adjusts the garment. She might be getting ready to go from one place to another when the garment is pulled around the shoulder or up around the head. How could a display help aid in this state? Or perhaps she is at her destination when she drapes it over her shoulders. How might this affect the response and output of the technology?