Future ‘fashion’
A jacket that heats up when you receive a text message. A skirt that changes its pattern depending on the wearer’s mood. These aren’t items you’ll find among the fall fashion must-haves — at least not yet. As technology becomes more fashionable (think jewel-encrusted cell phones), fashion is becoming more techie.
The integration of technology into clothing is already a reality with Nike and Levi’s producing shoes and pants designed to accommodate an iPod. But some in the fashion industry are experimenting with technology further.
You may not be able to buy them now, but some of these projects could be seeds of trends in the future.
•Computer Hood & Public/Private
Web site: http://www.joemalia.com/ recent/partone/page.html
Do you always feel like somebody’s watching you? Well, the Computer Hood can protect you from public snooping and distraction while using your technology of choice. The wearer can stretch the hood over a computer, a cell phone, or even a PSP to be completely isolated in a private, soundproofed space. If the hood wearer is at a computer, visitors can leave messages by talking into an area at the back of the hood marked “SPEAK.” The voice activates a mic that records and saves mp3 files onto the computer for the wearer to listen to at their leisure.
•whiSpiral
Web site: http://web.media.mit .edu/~stefan/hc/handouts/ whiSpiral.pdf
The whiSpiral is a spiral-shaped shawl that is able to record messages in nine recording modules scattered throughout the shawl. When the wearer caresses it or wraps it tightly around her, the recorded messages are whispered back.
•Sonic Fabric dress
Web site: http://www.sonicfabric.com
The Sonic Fabric dress gives new meaning to the term mix tape — it’s made of strands of cassette tape woven together. A piece of Sonic Fabric contains a 4-layer collage of sounds that could include snippets from the Beatles Revolution No. 9, Bjork, readings by Jack Keroac, and sounds of a Peruvian jungle. The dress can actually be played by running a tape head over its surface, but the multiple layers make the playback sound more like noise than pop.
•Flame 5
Web site: http://www .richardetter.net /flame5.php
Forget the “It’s Getting Hot in Herrre” ring tone. With the Flame 5 jacket you can get actual heat from your text messages. Using Bluetooth technology, the Flame 5 jacket heats up when your cell phone receives a message — and it can heat up in different areas and for different lengths of time depending on who is sending the message or what it says.
•Forecasting Umbrella
Web site: http://www .ambientdevices.com
No need to check with the weatherman before heading out the door with the Forecasting Umbrella. Through a data radio in its handle, the umbrella receives AccuWeather.com predictions and pulses a blue LED light at the bottom of the handle depending on the probability of rain. If the chances are 100 percent, the light pulses 100 times per minute.
•muk.luk.flux
Web site: http://web .media.mit.edu/~amanda /muklukflux/
Playing with the idea of the appearance of speed and sleekness in the placement of stripes or swooshes on sports apparel, muk.luk.flux are a pair of boots that actually change shape depending on the speed of the wearer’s movement. A system of mechanical actuators in the boots expand winglike structures when a sensor in the boots measures a certain amount of speed in the wearer’s motion.