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

Wearable technology for runners

[gallery]Continuing on the theme of wearable technology for runners, I was recently at the San Francisco marathon (no, I didn't run it, but supported a friend who did) and noticed that every runner was wearing a small bit of technology on their shoes. The technology is a flexible and disposable RFID tag by UPM Raflatac that you wrap around your shoe lace. A "reader" is placed at the start and finish line. When you cross either, the tag on your shoe is read by the reader at the exact moment you cross the lines. The accurate racing information is then sent to a database that keeps track of your start and finish time and calculates your pace.

Aesthetically, the technology is visible on the inside, which displays the RFID antenna in the shape of a dogbone (as they call it). The pattern and texture is actually quite beautiful. Next time I run a race, I'll be wearing one of these inside out.

Nikes tracks your marathon progress

[gallery] I've always been a fan of the combination of sports, technology and footwear. There is so much potential to integrate technology in meaningful and useful ways in sports gear. Designer Michael Robinson envisions doing just that with his concept titled Nike+ 26. It includes a series of 26 lights embedded in a pair of running shoes. After each mile you run during your marathon, a light turns on giving you ambient feedback on your progress.

NIKE78 - Michael Robinson | ‘NIKE+ 26′ from NIKE78 on Vimeo.

Continue reading on fastcompany.com. Images from fastcompany.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.

An analog interaction rich with narrative

Fashion designer Catherine Chow has been inspiring the fashion and art community for years with her avant-garde approach to her garments and her longing to push the boundaries of everyday materials. So, I wanted to resurrect one of her projects that she did a few years ago that fast-tracked her to fame and that is still so beautifully inspiring...her zipper dress. The dress, a wedding gown, consists of a single zipper that requires it to be unfurled and unzipped to remove. I love the simple (and analog) interaction of this garment and the story that the interaction tells. Since the garment is a wedding dress, it comes with all of the connotations, history and cultural context of wedding traditions. In this case, the brilliantly simple interaction whimsically enhances the tradition of "the wedding night" by providing an evocative experience of carefully unfurling it for the "big reveal" that becomes a form of seduction and foreplay on this important night. It's a great example of striking the right balance among the context of the garment and its cultural traditions, the implied interaction, and the narrative the experience reveals...er... tells. Image from metropolismag.com An interesting interview at fashionprojects.org More on Catherine Chow

Book review: Metamorphosis

[gallery] Italian fashion design has been at the forefront of the global fashion industry for years and remains one of the prominent drivers of Italy's economy. Elisabetta Cianfanelli and Stoffel Kuenen along with research team Roberta Baccolini, Gabriele Goretti, and Ambra Trotto have published a book titled Metamorphosis that discusses how technology will evolve the fashion industry and help establish new and innovative global markets.

After waiting 4 weeks for the book to arrive, I can finally provide some highlights...

The book begins with a manifesto that is a call-to-action for designers to focus on a user-centered design approach that considers a balance of social and virtual spheres (described below and in the book) that they say are required when integrating new technologies into fashion products that introduce new interactions.

The book begins its argument with an analysis of the history of fashion design and manufacturing processes specific to the Italian fashion "system" as they describe. "New technologies integrated into fashion will lead to a metamorphosis of meaning associated with the use of a product, offering a new way of interpreting it… based on its ability to offer various dimensions of interaction of which the user forms the center and that create an entirely [new] experience.

The fashion system [fashion design, materials, technology innovation and manufacturing processes] allows for the study of its functional, its expressive, and its communicative aspects.

The challenge lies in transforming the male, rational and cerebral image of technology and present it in a sexy, female, elegant form that [fashion] naturally creates."

The book goes on to argue that advancing technologies provide a myriad of opportunities for the fashion industry to differentiate and position itself in a global market. For example, "material technologies offer new fabrics with new properties to work with, the miniaturization of electronics offer completely new types of functions leading to new forms of expression and interaction for wearable technology designers to give form to." This makes the relationship between the culture, context and the interactions that the wearable product provides incredibly important.

The book supports this argument through a variety of wearable technology products that explore the balance of value and interaction through the understanding and realization of social and virtual spheres (as they describe them). Some examples include:

Beehugged – encouraging a society where showing mutual care and sharing become a natural (and public) habit

Cache – a fashion product meant as an expression of identity

Stir it On! – providing a sense of personal space and protection

HearWear – transforming and visualizing environmental sound levels

Climate dress – raising awareness of environmental factors we are normally unaware of

And many more...

This book is definitely worth the shipping wait and I recommend that it should be in every wearable technology designer’s library.

Go to Polistampa for € 25,60 (20% off the list price) for ordering info. For faster shipping for those of you in the states, the book is now available at plugandwear.com.