Robotic arm cuff therapy

[gallery] Fire your shrink. Jens Dyvik, a freelance designer in Holland, has created a therapeutic robot that provides more intimate psychological coddling than you ever knew you needed. That’s because you wear it.

Ref is a haptic creature that straps onto your wrist and twists, curls, and nuzzles against your skin in response to changes in your pulse. The movements are designed to soothe, to “help people become familiar with their emotional world,” Dyvik says and, by extension, calm their demons. Would something like this work? Well, the simple act of being more aware of your emotions and stress levels has a long history in psychology and even Buddhism -- it's the main tenet behind both Cognitive Behavioral therapy and mindfulness meditation.

Continue reading on Fast Company Images from Fast Company

Where Electronics Meet Textiles: a 2 day workshop

Lynne Bruning and Troy Nachitgall are hosting a 2-day eTextile workshop in Boulder on January 15 and 16 and it looks like a lot of fun! Info from the event site:

Join Italian eTextile Master Troy Nachtigall and award winning textile artist Lynne Bruning for a unique 2 day workshop in electronics, textiles and fashion. Troy is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology and teaches fashion and technology at the University IUAV of Venice, University Sapienza of Roma and the Institute of European Design.

Special Guest: Nwanua Elumeze, founder of Aniomagic, will share his company’s hardware advancements in eTextiles.

Image from event site.

A color-changing collection

[gallery] Fashion designers are continuing to explore garments printed with color changing inks. The latest is Rainbow Winters Spring Summer Collection 2011 featuring garments that are printed with special thermochromic and hydrochromic ink, which change color when exposed to sunlight or water.

"The signature piece of her collection is the Rainforest Dress - a dress that changes colour when exposed to water and/or sun. Sunlight activated flowers on the dress turn purple, when activated though water, the whole dress, the bodice and flowers transform into full colour. Her Petal Dress changes the color when exposed to sun, indoors it is green or pink, outdoors it begins to turn blue or purple."

Continue reading on InfraBodies Images from InfraBodies

3D printed footwear

[gallery] Designer Marloes ten Bhömer is focusing on mechanical couture through a series of beautiful 3D printed footwear called Rapidprototypedshoe. They are "built using an additive manufacturing technology in which successive layers of a photopolymer material is UV cured. The concept of the shoe is based on the idea of the absence of assembly work in Rapid Manufacturing, however the shoe is designed in such a way, that it can be dismantled for the purpose of replacing parts. The different material properties within the shoe are created by constructing/layering the material in microscopic structures from two different materials. A myriad of different material properties can be created using this method."

Continue reading at Bhömer's site. Images from Bhömer's site.

Project update: sensing spine movement

[gallery] I'm currently working on a project for a healthcare-related garment. The project consists of a set of garment accessories, each with their own functionality and sensing capabilities. I'm in the midst of prototyping one of them, which I thought I'd share. The garment will sense spine movement including slouch, arch and any imbalance in oblique positioning. Here's one of the early sensor explorations after a number of trials and tribulations with different materials to get the most accurate and washable sensor.

For more info on the project, there are a couple of postings available on the Artefact site: Understanding our need(s) for a new healthcare experience Envisioning a new healthcare experience

Stay tuned for more progress...