Flexible transistors for garment circuits

(image source via Ingrid Graz)

Physicists from Austria and the U.S. have built ultra-thin pressure sensors that are very sensitive and low in cost. They can be woven into sensitive textiles that have a range of potential applications for wearable technology. The technology uses pressure sensitive foils called ferroelectrets, which generate an electrical signal in reaction to pressure. As a result, the new thin-film transistors (TFTs) can switch back and forth in reaction to pressure and they are flexible enough to be integrated into clothing.

For more detailed info on how it works, the research has been published at Applied Physics Letters titled "Flexible ferroelectret field-effect transistor for large-area sensor skins and microphones" found here. 

More info via FWF and Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends.

Tinker, inventor, hacker spaces

(image source via New York Times)

There seems to be a trend in tinker and hacker spaces, which are popping up all over the place. Hacker collective NYC Resistor is one of the popular ones, which opened in the summer of 2007 in New York. It allows anyone who is interested in electronics to come in tinker, hack, and invent. “Resistor blew the doors off the scene here,” said Eric Moore (via NYTimes), a hacker from Bushwick who is forming his own group. “They’re the next generation of American hacking. The rest of us are just trying to catch up.” In fact, it's so popular that another hacker space has been started called Htink, which is also located in New York.

Hacker spaces are a great forum to learn about wearables and experiment with the potential interactions. Diana Eng, a designer exploring wearables and a former Project Runway contestant, is one of the 7 members of the NY Resistor collective. “My designs were too nerdy for ‘Project Runway,’ ” Ms. Eng said with a giggle. “But here they fit right in.”

More info via NYTimes, Makezine, NYResistor

Fashion technology as narrative

Fashion designer Angel Chang combines technology, data visualization, and narrative in a unique way that influences the aesthetics and function of her fashion collections. She's been experimenting with color-changing inks, 3-D images, iPod clothing, and light-up gear in her recent fashion lines to help tell stories about her garments.

"I think of all the ways my generation of women are different from previous generations: we're working more, traveling more, dependent on our cell phones, hooked on the Internet, and obsessively checking our e-mail. In short, we are more mobile and heavily depend on technology for all the things we do in our daily lives. My aim is to show that clothes can actually do something -- beyond just looking good; they ought to facilitate and improve the way we live." she says. 

She uses technology in many ways to create textiles for her garments. In her Spring 2008 collection, she uses a variety of mapping data that she visualizes and turns into textile patterns. For example, this dress uses maps of battlegrounds that she prints using 3D and embroidery:

Chang collaborates with technologists to integrate smart materials and technology into her garments. The below dress from her Fall 2007 collection shows integrated circuitry for an iPod.

Chang also uses smart materials as narrative. In the below dress, she uses thermochromatic inks that disappear when heat is applied to them to tell a story about the history of military camouflage. 

More info via AngelChang.com

Electroluminescent dress

Designers Amy Winters and Kseniya Zagorodnyuk of Couture Clubbing believe that the demand for innovation in entertainment and fashion is growing, therefore, they collaborate with technology companies to design garments that incorporate new and emerging textiles. As a result, they've created some beautiful garments with technology-infused accents such as this egg-shaped couture dress found in their Paradise Lost line. The dress is accented with electroluminescent wire and it can be purchased for a cool 1000 pounds. The aesthetic of the accents is beautiful. Who wouldn't want to wear this gorgeous couture to bring in the new year?

Liquid crystal textiles

Fashion designer Joshua Hupper of AlphaMicron is working with liquid crystal technology that he's applying to garments. The technology is similar to that found in many flat-panel HDTV displays. AlphaMicron originally applied the technology to sunglass lenses, which tint when exposed to sunlight or with a push of a button.

But Hupper wanted to go beyond just eyewear by asking: "How could we use [liquid crystal technology] to serve sort of an aesthetic that people hadn't really seen before?" (source). So he began experimenting with the technology by applying them to fabrics. The fringe on the above skirt gradually changes color. And in the dress below, the sequence gets darker when the sunlight shines on them.

 (image source via CNN)

I've seen a lot of experiments with color-changing textiles using thermochromatic inks that change color when heat is applied. However, integrating liquid crystal technology into fabrics could result in a beautiful aesthetic that offers new opportunities for reactive textiles.

Sources via CNN and Business.

Wearable forest

Ryoko Ueoka, Hiroki Kobayashi and Michitaka Hirose created this beautiful piece titled Wearable Forest from University of Tokyo and I can't get enough of it! This gorgeously delicate and illuminating dress interacts bio-acoustically with a remote forest. Lights are integrated into the fabric and their illuminations react to wildlife around the world through a wireless link connected to the internet. Real-time data and sound streams from the internet to the dress.

The beauty of this piece is that it expands beyond a single garment into one that is an ecosystem by enabling real-time environmental data from the web to interact with it. This provides a unique connection to nature and opens up the possibilities of "a completely new dimension of how clothing design can interact, react and merge with the environment," source via Talk2MyShirt.

See a video of the dress in action here.