Comment

Comment by munineye on May 19, 2009 at 1:12am

So, I actually had an idea very similar to this, built into a sweatshirt. Except the heart appeared on the wearer's arm. (Heart on your sleeve sort of thing.) I think I would prefer something that monitored your heart rate, though. So people can really see your heart race when you see someone you like, or something similarly sickeningly cute like that.

In some ways, I agree with Moritz's post more than Juliette's, because this technology wouldn't be available without engineers. Sure, it takes designers to envision what to do with it, but it really just takes an engineer to design those little LEDs and pick the right ones for the right job. It takes time and effort and a lot of knowledge that many crafty designers just don't have.

Comment by Moritz Waldemeyer on May 5, 2009 at 4:32am

Hi guys, a few answers in response to the above comments:

The Jimmie Roger kit is a very nice beginner's electronics kit, yet it differs significantly from the 'heartbeat' project: The heartbeat module has a much higher resolution, is much thinner (smd components) and has a far more capable processor allowing 20fps video to run with 256 grey scale. This design gives you great freedom what you would like to display, whereas the Open heart kit due to its technical limitations does not.
We did consider to add a biometric sensor but decided to add a more interesting capability: there is scope for hidden buttons to manually change the heart frequency which allows the wearer to interact with the onlooker in a rather cheeky way.
Finally, Juliette, I challenge you to create a fabric circuit with the same video capability as 'heartbeat' and the same brightness that can withstand daily use during a trade fair and be washed every day. Make the circuit invisible to not disturb the design of the garment. And please complete the project in 3 weeks and produce 10 reliable prototypes.

Comment by Juliette Sallin on May 2, 2009 at 8:27am

Syuzi, you're right.
There's no point of separating electronics from fabric. Indeed, the embedding of the electronics into the fabrics is the key point of any wearables. This guy just created a simple electronic jewellry.
Anyway, he's an ingeneer and an ingeneer can't become a designer so easily. The brain behind Hussein Chalayan is Chalayan himself.

Comment by Syuzi on May 1, 2009 at 9:49am

I do think its similar to the Open Heart Kit. And I'm pretty sure that it doesn't have any biometeric sensors in it to monitor your heart rate. Otherwise, it would be kind of interesting to have something as invisible as your heat rate visualized.

Comment by meg on May 1, 2009 at 2:44am

does this pendant react to the wearer's heartbeat? in that case it's kind of interesting, but certainly the execution of it does seem a little obvious, as you point out.

Comment by Becky Stern on April 30, 2009 at 8:10pm

It looks just like Jimmie Rogers' Open Heart kit, am I right? http://www.jimmieprodgers.com/openheart

And you can make it animate however you like. Oh, and it's open source.