May 2009 Blog Posts (20)

Maker Faire E-textile Roundup

Maker Faire

It's that time of year again and I've gathered together the "must see" interactive textile events for this weekend's Maker Faire. I'll be running around on Saturday so if you see me please say "hello." I'll be wearing something that glows ;-)

Have a great weekend!

Proximity Sensing with Fabrics…

Proximity Sensing with Fabrics

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Added by Syuzi on May 28, 2009 at 12:19pm — No Comments

"Smart" Millinery: Thermochromatic Embroidery

Thermochromatic Embroidery

Kim Hall, a textile artist, is holding an interactive textile workshop this Saturday May 30 at the 3rd Ward in Brooklyn.

Kim will show you how to make a "smart" hat embroidered with heat sensitive inks that can convey a cheeky message with the flip of a switch. In… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 27, 2009 at 3:00pm — No Comments

Thermochromatic Map Tee

Angel Chang, the high-tech fashion designer, has her wonderful heat-sensitive map T-shirts currently available for sale. The T covers Manhattan's trendiest districts—Soho, Nolita, and Chelsea— so you'll never get lost shopping or gallery hopping.

Available for $80 via Angel Chang's… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 26, 2009 at 2:01pm — No Comments

Wearable Sound Experiment

The 16th and 17th of May V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media held a 2-day workshop on wearable technology lead by Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson aka Kobakant.

After the workshop introduction and meeting round participants were split up into two groups to distribute the wide variety of skills. The background of participants was broad… Continue

Added by Simon de Bakker on May 21, 2009 at 12:06pm — 3 Comments

Tiny Polymer Lithium Ion Battery

These new light-weight batteries from Sparkfun are perfect for any LED jewelry project. Less than a square inch in size, each cell outputs 3.7V at 20mAh. The great part — they are rechargeable (yay!). The downside — they require a specialized Lithium Polymer charger.

You can, of course, wire up a bunch together to get more amperage for other wearable projects that require more… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 20, 2009 at 10:13am — No Comments

B-boys Dressed In Light

I can't tell you how much I love the video/project above. I must admit I have a passion for break dancing — perhaps spent too much time on Venice Blvd as a kid. And, of course, I love all things that glow. So breaking combined with interactive wearables just makes me giddy.

Photo of Minoru Fujimoto

The wearables above are part of the Minoru… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 19, 2009 at 10:30am — 4 Comments

Networked Breathing Wearable

exChange::networked breathing devices from Jessica Floeh on Vimeo.

exChange is a pair of wearables that communicate the breathing patterns of one wearer to another. Developed by Jessica Floeh, currently a student at Parsons, the wearable uses… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 18, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

Bare — Conductive Skin

Previously I wrote about the Bare project — conductive ink that can be applied to your skin. I discovered a video overview today and thought I'd share.… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 18, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

E-textile LED Matrix Display

Stef Verheijen (aka Steffest) is a web developer with a passion for tinkering. His latest creation is a an 8 x 8 LED matrix e-textile display. He used superflux RGB LEDs and conductive thread.

E-textile LED Matrix Display

Back of display

The project was certainly labor intensive and took him about 4 evenings to meticulously sew the LEDs onto the fabric. His… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 15, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

Crowdsourcing Massage Jacket

Crowdsourcing Wearable Massage

Developed by MIT students Carnaven Chiu, Xiao Xiao, Keywon Chung, and Peggy Chi , SOS:… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 13, 2009 at 7:30pm — 1 Comment

Louis Vuitton Solar Luggage

If you've ever fantasized about vacationing on a remote island with only a coffee maker and laptop, then Louis Vuitton's latest travel luggage is for you.

This high tech trunk was commissioned by a Chinese mega-millionaire, and although it's quite excessive ( who really needs to carry around all their electronic gadgets when a laptop will suit you fine) there is something quite interesting in this mobile office concept.

In… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 13, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

QR Codes get Stylish

Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami QR code

Infusing a sense of style into ordinary QR codes, Louis Vuitton's & Takashi Murakami's latest collaboration has resulted in a designer QR Code that features the artist’s characters and the classic LV pattern.

QR (an acronym for "Quick Response") Codes can be read by a mobile phone and are a means of linking physical objects to the virtual world.

Further… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 11, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

Thermochromatic Wallpaper

"The Heat is On", developed by Elisa Strozyk, cleverly uses thermochromatic inks to transform ordinary radiators into stylish decor. A lovely pattern appears on both the wall and the radiator itself when the radiator is turned on— and disappears when the radiator is not in use. The use of thermochromatic inks is both decorative and functional: it dually acts as a means to enhance the… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 11, 2009 at 9:00am — 1 Comment

DIY Soft Circuit Tutorials

Two new DIY soft circuit video tutorials from Diana Eng and Becky Stern from Craftzine. Diana shows you how to make an embroidered robot using conductive thread and LEDs. Becky's project is a color changing LED brooch. Both projects are quite simple and great introduction to working with LEDs and conductive… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 8, 2009 at 5:30pm — No Comments

LUX Solar Necklace

Solar Necklace

Designer Mae Yokoyama, a student at Konstfack in Sweden, designed LUX, a lovely solar collar that gathers energy during the day and uses the energy to light up a string of LED lights in the evening.

Solar Necklace

Via… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 7, 2009 at 10:35am — 1 Comment

Rocketboom covers Wearable Technology

Rocketboom Tech correspondent Ellie Rountree talks to Adam Harvey and Anaid Gomez about their fashion tech projects. Both are currently students at ITP.

Gomez's project takes the Nike+ concept to a new level by adding biometeric sensors… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 7, 2009 at 9:30am — No Comments

Great Interview w/ Artist Kate Hartman

Kate Hartman is an artist and an instructor at ITP who has created fabulous work in wearables and interactive fashion that explore ideas of how we communicate.

The interview is by Dave Caputo via the Science… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 5, 2009 at 11:53am — No Comments

Win Fashioning Technology's Smart Materials Kit

The wonderful folks at Craftzine are giving away the Smart Materials Kit. For your chance to win, start following them on Craft Twitter.

The winner will be announced next Monday, May 11th. Good… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 5, 2009 at 9:45am — No Comments

Caché 2.0 — Interactive Fashion

Interactive Fashion

Developed by MIT student Nadya Peek, Caché 2.0 is an interactive garment that translates online voyeurism into a physical reaction in the real world.

The wearable itself is linked to a website containing fragmented images of her body. When a user clicks on an image, a signal is sent to the garment via bluetooth and the… Continue

Added by Syuzi on May 4, 2009 at 9:00am — No Comments

MSC Dissertation

1. What are some good tips to complete an MSC Dissertation (research project)?

MSC students are required to write a MSC dissertation at the end of the course. Is this research project based on workplace research or it can also be completed by consulting books and journals? This dissertation should be of 16,000 to 20,000 words. Please help me with some skills and tips in completing this project. Thanks a… Continue

Added by suzzane donald on May 2, 2009 at 1:09am — No Comments