Austrian designer Wolfgang Langeder just sent in a project he's currently working on. Langeder and the Fraunhofer IZM / Stretchable Circuits in Berlin, have joined forces since january 2010 to develop clothing with integrated displays. The first of the series of 'the utope projects' is an intelligent business suit titled Cybernomade includes a display that interacts with a smart phone put within a pocket on the inside of the jacket and indicates a call or sms on its surface. "The main objective of this cooperation is to create a smart urban wear product line for men. 'the utope project' conceives itself as a laboratory for fashion, in which intelligent design merges with our time ́s most innovative technologies in order to create something thoroughly new and future oriented for clothing and fashion." Continue reading on the project site.
Woven electronics for commercialization
[gallery] "Researchers have been experimenting with “intelligent” textiles for quite some time by integrating standard electronic components. However, for the most part the electronic parts have only been attached to or sewn into plain old clothes like coats or T-shirts – an endeavor ultimately doomed to fail because of one practical drawback: they’re difficult to wash. Moreover, it takes a lot of handiwork to produce them, which bumps up the price of the clothes.
Scientists from Professor Gerhard Tröster’s Wearable Computing Lab, however, have now gone one step further: they’ve developed a new technology to attach thin-film electronics and miniaturized, commercially available chips to plastic fibers. The researchers eventually succeeded in integrating a large number of microchips and other microelectronic elements directly into the architecture of the material. In order to weave the E-fibers into conventional threads, the ETH-Zurich scientists used customary textile machines." Continue reading on ETH Zurich.
Images from ETH Zurich via talk2myshirt.com
Turning wear into pattern
[gallery] "The ‘Decay’ project explores how traces of time and use can be embedded in textile. By wearing a carbon fibre suit over a white blouse, textile designer Marie Ilse Bourlanges captured the gestures of the body bending, stretching, scratching and rubbing. The transfer imprint on the blouse was then translated into a pattern of lines that ebb and flower across the textile." Continue on nextnature.
Images from nextnature.
A collection of garments that illuminate and change color in an instant
A lot of designers have been exploring the idea of garments that can illuminate and change color in an instant based on mood, movement and environmental factors. There are still no practical display solutions for wearable technology aside from some attempts at flexible displays, some clever applications of smart inks and Philip's investment in flexible light fabrics. But this hasn't stopped designers from exploring the possibilities. Here is a collection of projects that change color by covering the surface of the garment with LEDs. Cutecircuit Galaxy Dress Cutecircuit's Galaxy Dress may not be wearable, but it certainly is an engineering achievement. Covered in 10's of thousands of LEDs, this dress subtly shifts color and creates a gorgeous pattern of light across the entire surface. I can't help but wonder how heavy it is and how warm it gets while all the lights are on. Regardless, it's a good exploration about the possibilities.
Hussein Chalayan video dress Similar to the Galaxy Dress, Hussein Chalayan's video dress is made up of thousands of LEDs that cover the surface. He added an outer layer of fabric that defuses the light, which smoothes and softens the effect.
Philips Design Probes: Skin Dress One of Philips Design Probes labeled "Skin" examines the future integration of sensitive materials in the area of emotional sensing. This exploration covers a garment in soft deffused LEDs to illustrate how emotive technology can use pattern and color change to interact and predict the emotional state of the wearer.
A bridal application With all of this illuminated fabrics exploration, we are beginning to see attempts to bring the concepts into real world applications. Brittany Beltz integrated hundreds of LEDs into her wedding gown and surprised the audience by illuminating the garment during her first dance with her new husband.
Katy Perry's Glowing Met Costume Gala Gown (Shown in the above photo) We are also finding illuminated garments find their way into the entertainment and music industry. While attending a red carpet event for the Met Costume Gala, Katie Perry wrapped herself in an illuminated gown created by Cutecircuit. The gown included LED lights that were controlled by a switch that was hidden inside Perry's bra. Read more about this garment at ecouterre.com.
All of these solutions will have non-trivial challenges such as power and heat. Although these explorations are gorgeous, I am still waiting to see a practical application.
Top image from ecouterre.
A wind powered knitting machine creates scarves
[gallery]
This was sent to me by the talented designer from n-ktr.com. With the power of the wind, Studio Merel Karhof based in London, has created a knitting machine that automatically knits a scarf continuously with each breeze. When the knit gets to a desired length, it is "harvested" and packaged up as an individual scarf. Here's how Karhof describes it: "Along the façade the knitwear moves slowly trough the window into the gallery, fast at hi wind speed, slow when there is not a lot of wind. The knitted material will be harvested from time to time, and rounded of in individually labelled scarves. The labels will tell you in how much time the scarves are made and on which day. They are sold in the by the Studio Designed Wind Knitting Shop, a shop which exists on the border between the private and the public space."
Continue reading on Karhof's portfolio site or at Abitare. Images from Abitare.
3 Days of Smart Fabric Conference madness in Miami
I attended the Smart Fabric Conference in Miami this week and there was a lot of terrific discussion about the current state of eTextiles, trends and innovations happening with eTextiles and wearable technology, the opportunities and challenges of commercialization, and questions around what's next. The conference was a 3-day jammed packed extravaganza that included keynote speakers Stacey Burr, CEO Textronics and VP adidas, along with Dr. Liesbeth van Pieterson, project leader of the photonic textile project at Philips Research. Some of the trends and opportunity areas that were discussed throughout the 3 days included:
- The "Urban adventurer" - people who live an urban lifestyle are also seeking outdoor adventure so they can have their own adventure in the city. How do we create products for the outdoor adventurer that keeps them close to their urban lifestyle.
- Happiness and meaning - over 9 Billion euros was spent in Europe last year on helping people find life meaning.
- Personalized concepts for health - how do I prevent illness and how can a healthy lifestyle be integrated into my entire life.
- Green and sustainability - is a very fast growing industry. What are products that can help support the environment?
- Travel - people are traveling more, working remotely more, and on the go. How can we create products that help people stay connected, be productive, have fun, and provide a sense of home.
- Cross-integration - how can many different forms of materials, manufacturing techniques, textiles, etc... be integrated into one product and manufacturing lifecycle
- Cross-innovation - how can many (and somewhat disparate) industries and disciplines work together toward innovative and holistic solutions?
- DIY (Do-It-Yourself) - is making electronics and wearable technology accessible to a broader audience and opening up consumers to the possibility and acceptance of wearable technology solutions.
People in this field from all over the world (see the list of speakers here) discussed these opportunities and the challenges that this emerging field faces, including:
- Commercialization - there was a large focus on the topic of commercialization and how to bring new eTextiles and products to the market. There are still a significant amount of manufacturing hurdles to get over since this type of technology requires a new look at the infrastructure and techniques of manufacturing
- Market potential - who will want wearable technology solutions? What are the market opportunities? What kind of brands and companies are investing in these types of solutions?
- Market acceptance - will people accept wearable technology? Are they worried about safety? Can they use it?
- The right solution - what is the right combination of materials, manufacturing, marketing, consumer understanding and need, design, etc...
In between discussions everyone from Despina Papadoloulos of Studio 5050, to fashion designer Angel Chang, to Kenneth Klopp of Ardica Technologies talked about opportunities, challenges and shared what they are working on.
To read more on the Smart Fabric conference, go to the site here.
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The photo is from the eStatic Shadows project done by Jackson Tan (who spoke at the conference) and Professor Zane Bersina. The project is a soft fabric that has thousands of integrated LEDs and electrostatic antennas made of woven conductive thread. This gorgeous eTextile reacts to your electrostatic energy by turning the leds off when you are near. The result is a beautiful and soft shadow that animates to your movement. I just want to wrap myself up in this!