HD Video Recording Glasses for Facebook

This is one of the most exciting wearable technology efforts I have seen in a long time. ZionEyez is working on a pair of HD Video Recording Glasses for Facebook called Eyez™. The glasses include a tiny 720p HD video camera that is so tightly integrated into the eyewear, that you virtually cannot see it.

Eyez™ records live video data and takes pictures. The data can then be stored on the 8GB of flash memory within the Eyez™ glasses, transferred via Wifi/Bluetooth or Micro USB to a computer, or wirelessly transferred to most iPhone or Android devices. After a one-time download of the “Eyez™” smartphone and tablet app, users can wirelessly broadcast the video in real time to their preferred social networking website, such as Facebook.

They are already funded nearly $300K on Kickstarter and plan to release their first line in Winter 2012. If you pledge $150 or more in the next few days, they'll send you a pair when they're ready.

More info on Kickstarter.

High-Tech Couture Made Without Any Stitches Or Cuts

[gallery]Royal College of Art textile student Jungeun Lee, has created a collection of gorgeous garments that are constructed without any stitches or cuts called Wrapped Garment. The garments use synthetic fiber and a heating process to create three-dimensional, sculptural designs that require no cutting, weaving, or sewing. "The influx of new production technologies in fashion has created some interesting designs -- from Issey Miyake’s rapid prototyping, Amy Winters’s light-reactive clothing, even jackets made from microbes. But Lee’s method is actually quite simple: Wrap the synthetic fibers (either lots of short ones or one long thread) around a mannequin using a normal two-dimensional pattern made out of cardboard, then apply heat. The process can be used to create products...including shoes" Continue reading on fastcodesign.com.

Images from fastcodesign.com.

Jawbone wristband tracks health to fight obesity

Jawbone announced a project they've been quietly working on for years on stage at TED Global. It's a wearable band called Up, which is infused with sensors and a connected smartphone, allowing you to track your eating, sleeping, and activity patterns. Together, the combination of a sensor-infused wristband and a smartphone app will provide nudges for healthier living, based on your behavior. The industrial design was designed by Yves Behar's Fuseproject, and the software was developed by Jawbone's current CTO, Jeremiah Robison, who interestingly came from the social-gaming company Slide. It makes me wonder how (and if) game mechanics and game play will be used in the experience.

Continue reading at Fast Company. Image from Fast Company.

Gloves that capture your secrets

[gallery]Designer and maker, Meg Grant, has been exploring wearable technology and eTextiles. Her latest work Secret Keeper Gloves, extends human behavior and tendencies in a poetic, playful way through simple interaction triggered by natural gestures. The gloves capture your secret as you cup your hands over your mouth to whisper it. Here's how it works:

  • The batteries, microchip and speaker are all in the left hand. This means that the left hand has a fully-contained playback circuit.
  • In order to activate playback, press the thumb and the forefinger of the left hand together.
  • The only components in the right hand are the microphone and an indicator LED.
  • When the left and right palms are pressed together, the record circuit is connected at three points, two on the heel of the hand for power and ground and one on the side of the hand for input from the microphone.
  • Record is activated by pressing the left and right thumbs together.
  • The embroidery makes it possible for the wearer to use a variety of thumb positions for record and playback.

Via talk2myshirt More info at meggrant.com Images from meggrant.com

Growing light

[gallery] I instantly fell in love with this project by Jordy Rooijakkers (TU/e Industrial Design) for Philips Lumiblade Creative Lab, which is a Growing Light that responds to touch. Caress the light or tap it gently and it reacts by subtly transforming into a new illuminating form.

In the wearable tech field, designers have been exploring this type of physical transformational behavior in garments. A few include the following. However, I have yet to see any explorations that incorporate movement AND light in this way.

More info at Behance.net Images from Behance.net

Sensoree explores therapeutic bio media and body architecture

[gallery]Sensoree is an art and technology design lab focused on body architecture and therapeutic bio.media created by experience designer Kristin Neidlinger and team. Through her work, she explores nervous systems that inspire body awareness, insight, and spontaneity. Her latest "artifacts" investigate proximity, intimacy, telepathy, intuition, and humor between human and machine. Here are a few of them:

GER: mood sweater The GER: Galvanic Extimacy Responder, mood sweater is an emotive display that is an externalized intimacy.

InflataCorset is a heart rate sensor-initiated inflatable corset. When the heartbeat reaches an excited, panic state, a wireless heart rate sensor triggers the air pump. Then, the corset inflates. The external pressure of the vest on the skin calms the nervous system and returns the heart back to a resting rate

FURVER fo.corset is an interactive hard shell corset with “emotionally volatile” fur that reacts to the proximity of those too near. Inspired by sea anemones, animated tentacles rise and bio-luminescent color intensifies to warn predators of personal space dimensions being invaded as well as protect the wearer.

Continue reading on Sensoree. Images from Sensoree.