Dear Readers
Since its inception
in 30,000 BC Clothing has been one of the defining pinnacles of human
civilization. The evolution of the utility of clothing started from humble Paleolithic
beginnings as protection against the elements and transformed to encompass uniformity,
self expression, culture, religion and many other facets.
We are now reaching a milestone of great
proportion as we seek to further add to its utility a wide range of functions
by meshing clothing with circuitry.
The
age of wearable technology is at hand.
I’m sure by now you’ve all seen the Intel Edison powered ,3D
printed spider dress, indefinitely one of the highlights of CES 2015.
With its
proximity sensor and collar of robotic claws ,which stab anyone invading the
personal space of the wearer, Designer Anouk Wipprecht takes the concept of
“playing hard to get” to a whole new level. Jokes aside, there is no arguing
that this work of art is as mesmerizing as the creature of nature after which
it is modeled.
Some of her other notable work include:
- A smoke dress which ,as
advertised, creates a smoke screen if the wearer feels threatened. If the idea was to stealth however I have to say that a running smoking person would grab quite alot of attention.Other than that my main concerns would be smoke alarms,choking hazards and no smoking areas.
- A biometric
dress called Synapse which monitors
moods and also has a proximity sensor ,similar to the spider dress but instead
of claws has lights which flicker and increase in intensity depending on stress
levels and invasion of privacy
- And the last,and frankly the least in the sense of
body coverage, is a fantastical article of clothing dubbed Intimacy composed of
smart e-foils that ,depending on heart rate and certain sensual social
interactions, turn from opaque to transparent.
I’m all for the integration of wearable technology but
having your clothes in essence reveal your inner thoughts and moods will
indefinitely lead to conflict sooner or later and in a dynamic world with many
external factors that affect your body and your mood this seems like another avenue for misinterpretation.
Speaking of which, the people of Japan have been the subject
of constant misinterpretation; although they can’t really fault anyone but
themselves.
From their eerie tentacle featuring manga and anime to their
bizarrely sexualized commercials it isn’t a wonder that they are considered, a
little odd. However it is especially Japanese fashion and technology that go
above and beyond the boundaries of norm to bring us creations that are
magnificently and wondrously weird.
One such creation is the Necomimi.
Necomimis are strap-on animatronic
ears which claim to move in different ways by using brainwave sensor technology
and translating your brain activity in order to determine your current mood, be
it ear flopping calm or ear perking focus.
Necomimis come with interchangeable
animal ear pieces and are utterly pointless.
But wait! If you thought those silly accessories were a meow
and a half then this next contraption is just purrfect for you.
Introducing
Tailly for those of you who were just dying to get the complete outfit and just
didn’t think you looked asinine enough. Tailly is a wearable belt that has
sensors that measure your heart rate and as it increases the attached tail starts
moving. So if by chance you see a person on the ground with a Tailly furiously
wagging behind him, he or she is probably having a heart attack which leaves
you with the following options. To take a selfie next to this unusual
occurrence , to leave the weird sod to die there, or perhaps even to ease its
passing.
I would recommend buying
this if you are Japanese, a furry fetishist, making a glorified cat costume for
Halloween or if you are Hugh Hefner (I know you are an avid reader buddy and I
would love to see these on some playboy bunnies, live long and prosper!).
But it
is simply a ridiculous thought that anyone would wear this on a regular basis
as their creators intended.
In Fashion the greater the reward the higher the risqué. In
2010 Manuel Torres proved just that as he revealed to the world a whole new
form of fashion, spray-on clothing.
His invention the Fabrican used a
customizable
polymer based liquid fabric which could be sprayed via an aerosol can or a spray
gun onto a surface to create an overlapping non woven cloth.
The demonstrations
showed the fabric being spurted onto models framing every crevice, cleft and
curvature of their body to create clothing that acted like second skin. But for
those of us who are not yet comfortable in our own skin let alone a second
layer molding it for the world to see, Fear not. The material can be pulled and
tugged into less form fitting shape to save us our modesty.
The apparel is washable and ultimately
re-usable and it can be recycled by dissolving the material and using it to
create new clothing.
But Fabrican’s utility goes far beyond fashion. Manuel
envisions his invention being used in the fields of medicine, from casts and medicine
laced bandages to spray on trans-dermal drug delivery systems; Hygiene, from
creating waterproof mattress coverings for use in hospitals to sponges to
towels, etc; and Design as this can be sprayed onto any frame or surface from
walls and floors to the interior of cars and many more, even giving 3d printing
a little jog for its money.
However there are a few apparent issues with Fabrican.The First
would be customization, which is key to Fabrican’s success. Unless there is a
customizable refill system aerosol cans only offer so much customization, hence
you will have to buy a spray gun. Secondly;
although the notion that you could create your own clothing with Fabrican is
exciting unless you are a contortionist this seems like a two person operation .Creating
your own clothing will indefinitely require a different process (possibly with
frames) than is shown in the video demonstration. Finally the big question is: Would
the whole process be more cost and time efficient than going out and buying retail
clothes?
Fabrican’s Commercial launch is yet to be announced
Wearable Solar is a prospect that utterly excites and
enthralls me. Project Leader Christian Holland not only shared my passion; it
would appear that we both approached the concept with the same vision.
Woodstock and Coachella.
Whether it is to know
what band is playing when, to find out where you are, to call up your friends
and let them know your location or to take those all important photographs which
basically double as
bragging rights, a Smartphone
becomes quite important at these festivals. Ergo Battery life becomes very crucial
and charging becomes an issue, but not anymore.
Pauline Van Dongen with the aid
of physicist Dr. Gert-Jan Jorgerden, who specializes in Solar cell engineering,
designed clothes that have solar panels integrated into them and can
essentially power small gadgets. They claim that their dresses can restore a
dead phone battery up to 50%, with only an hour of soaking up the sun.
The main objective of all wearable technology is to find the
perfect equilibrium between fashion and functionality. The Wearable Solar
project is no different. Seamlessly fitting flexible solar cells into clothing to
make them fashionable was quite the challenge but with flexibility came a
price. The energy output requirements couldn’t be met by the thin flexible
solar cells that were installed and thus the clothes had to be mounted with
rigid solar cells (meant to be stationary) which left the designs looking too peculiar
and conspicuous to go mainstream.
A fabric comprising solely of advanced power
generating solar cells would be ideal for making clothes but this only exists
in the lab and is extremely expensive to fabricate let alone commercialize. The
solar powered clothing of today is a tradeoff between flexibility, power production
and cost. However, as with all technology, the outlay will go down and the
future of wearable solar looks bright.
But if you are like me, impatient that is and think the
future should be now, then perhaps you’ll be intrigued by this. A collaborative
effort of Mobile Phone Company Orange and Got wind (a group of experts on
renewable energy), Orange power Wellies are thermo electric Wellington boots
which have a ceramic sandwiched thermocouple system that uses the heat from
your feet to generate electricity.
However this is far more inefficient when
compared to solar wear as you need 12 hours of loitering under your boots to
have enough power to charge your Smartphone for an hour. But bear in mind that the
hotter your feet get the more energy you produce. So to increase efficiency the
creators of Orange Power Wellies encourage you, to get jiggy with it.
Sadly though, Power Wellies are still unavailable to the
public.
The Arduino Lilypad created by Leah Buechley at MIT, is one
of the first commercially launched wearable microprocessors.
Its ability to
easily link with sensors and actuators and its low cost spurned an array of innovative,
homespun and factory made creations.
The turn signal bike jacket is one such invention. Designed
by Leah Buechley herself the jacket has LED lights attached to it which allows bikers
to signal if they are turning left, right, going straight or at night just
alerting traffic to their presence. Buttons are mounted onto the right and left
sleeves of the jacket which when pressed; activate the LEDs on the back of the
jacket. Biking can be quite dangerous especially in the later hours of the day
and creations like this make it safer for all involved.
Among such useful and helpful items such as a bag that senses
if your valuables are within its confines or if you didn’t pack them, etc,
there are several Tech fashion Faux pas that are just wonderfully confounding.
Design company Diffus has its own
line of fashion technology. Using Arduino Lilypad microprocessors to power
their fabrications they’ve come up with quite a few novel clothing items. The
acclaimed Climate Dress is their most prized product. It responds to carbon
dioxide levels in the air around the wearer using a sensor and lights up LEDs
woven into the outfit. If you are aiming to be the Harbinger of a “carbon
fuelled end of the world” scenario or you are just curious about your carbon
footprint or those of others, I simply couldn’t recommend this enough.
Another
of their creative designs is the UV Dress. As the name would suggest it
measures light intensities and responds by closing and opening apertures
inserted into the dress itself. Again if you are a vampire or you have a horrid
skin disease (in which case I’m truly sympathetic) I still wouldn’t recommend
buying this.
Other less known but more bizarre
inventions are a matching pair of his and her underwear which vibrate when the
wearers are around each other and a sound projecting strap article which is
designed to keep the dancing wearer out, I repeat, OUT of synch with the music.
Although these clothes seem silly,
we mustn’t forget that novelty usually precedes norm, and the initiative these
designers have, deserve appreciation.
There are countless other
fascinating smart clothing products that I would’ve included from an
electrocuting anti-rape bra to a sad hug-simulation vest to life saving heart
rate monitoring cardigans for the elderly and diseased to smug smart socks and so
many more, but alas time being the stern mistress that she is simply would not
allow it.
But there is no doubt that the amalgamation
of circuitry and couture edges us towards the science fiction fantasy that we
all dream the future to be like.
Heiwa
