Webelow Wear

The 8th edition of DMY International Design Festival 2010 will kick off with a grand opening ceremony on June 9 and it’s looking wearable-tastic! With over 10,000 square meters of inspirational prototypes and new products by  over 400 designers, the event will be an informative event for all enthusiasts.  Those  interested in wearbles can get an ear and handful with V2 labs’ V2_E-Textile Workspace.  Participants will work with workshop leaders to learn the goals and key concepts of the field and build a simple soft interface into one of their own existing garments.

Via [Electricfoxy.com]

Biggest red carpet faux pas: wearing  the same outfit as someone else.  Katy Perry, of course, had nothing to worry at last night’s MET Gala.  Infact, the spotlight was on her CuteCircuit couture gown with flowing silk chiffon and over 3000 LEDs creating a rainbow of colours shimmering around her.  

Our vote: the best way to show up the celeb-competition at the Oscars of Fashion.

Read more about CuteCircuit after the jump!

Via [TheSuperficial]

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According to the American Music Therapy Association(AMATA), music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals. These goals can range from bettering social interactions  amongst the menatlly handicap or austic, to reducing stress levels among terminally ill patients.  After reading Talk2MyShirt’s posting on the Bio Circuit Vest we did a little research and found the subject absolutely fascinating…and opportune for the wearables community.

The vest,  created by two students at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design, monitors your heart rate and based on that information plays music to “match” your “mood”.  That  is, if you’re super calm and chilled-out-man it plays chill sounds. Inversely, if your excited and heart rate is high, the vest  plays a cacophony of sounds through the  speakers connected to an MP3 player.  Arguably,  the vest does have a therapeutic aspect but – we think – can be repurposed specifically for the use of music therapy.

Imagine a crying baby, a person with autism or a terminal patient wearing this vest/sweater/wrap (or however it’s to be packaged) being instantly soothed – at least momentarily – by classical music  from the embedded speakers playing as the wearer’s heart rate increases past a certain “calm” zone.

Simple and effective. 

Have any other ideas on how this product can be used (or altered)? Let us know!

For over a year now we have been lucky owners of Android OS enabled phones.  Recently, Google has released the Android Scripting Environment, which allows users to write simple code (even on the phone) that uses many of the powerful Andorid API classes.

This new application brings Android features to the masses and also allows for rapid prototyping and on-the-fly development.  As an added bonus, the phones has it’s own sensors (compass, accelerometer, etc.)  and screen output, as well as an all-important connection to the internet, which can be used to push or pull data or even advanced features like text-to-speech.

We first learned of the Android Scripting Environment through CellBots, a project that uses ASE and Arduino to make robots that use the phone’s sensors along with the sensors connected to the Arduino for navigation and  remote control.

This is an interesting area for wearable technology because 3g phones are gaining market share.  Scripting languages for phones that interact with electronics essentially give us ultra cheap computers – more powerful than a cheap microprocessor alone.  We can and should use the phone to cut back on the power and size costs of features like GPS location, internet connectivity and heavy duty processing.

We found the Email Counting T-shirt by Chris and Madeliene Ball through Talk2myShirt and this is a perfect example of using ASE and Arduino.  The shirt uses a ridiculously simple python script to access the Gmail RSS feed and transmit the count data through serial to the Lilypad.  Additionally, this is also a good use of screenprinting and wearables. 

Read more info after the jump.

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Here’s a great article to leave the wearables tinkerers feeling inspired and hopeful:

Ecouterre’s “Ask A Designer” Series asked Syuzi Pakhchyan of Fashioning Technology  if wearable technology hype or hope?  Pakhchyan ended her hopeful response with a quote from educator and philosopher Marshall McLuhan:

“The book is an extension of the eye…Clothing, an extension of the skin…Electric circuitry, an extension of the central nervous system. Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perceptions. The extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act—the way we perceive the world. When these ratios change, men change.”

Pakhchyan explains how technology alone will not save our planet,  but rather the affect technology has on the psyche of people  will spark the change necessary to make our lives more sustainable.  The use of wearable technology will provide a window into how we as humans affect our world.  The transparency of production in the fashion industry, energy harvesting textiles and environmental pollutant sensing garments are some of the ways Pakhchyan predicts wearables will  directly affect people and subsequently change their minds and behavior.

Solar power chargers are gaining a bit of popularity. So much so they’re just giving them away! Yes, it’s true! Check out Inhabitat.com to find out how you can win this very green, very awesome solar powered charger.

Syuzi Pakhchyan, media designer and editor of Fashioning Technology gave her predictions for eco-fashion in 2010, and it looking goooood for wearables!

“2010, I believe is going to be a spectacular year for developments and curious experiments in wearable technology”.

This is exciting news, especially for us. With the buzz of wearables quickly growing to a loud roar, the potential for wearable designers and designs is limitless.

Even more exciting – Syuzi’s  forecast was included on a list with predictions from 15 others in the “eco-fashion” business world. The implication is awesome: the use of wearables will be just as significant (and perhaps necessary) to aid in the transition from our current business and societal models to ones of sustainability and global consciousness.  From products that detect the carbon dioxide in your surrounding area to fashion designs that demonstrate the melting of the North Polar Ice Caps, wearables can be an informative platform to spark to the conversation and innovation necessary to make major changes in our world.

Via [Ecouterre]

Urban fashion designer, Ecko, has come out with a new audio hoodie with an iPod controller.

The company takes advantage of the Fibretronic CONNECTEDWear soft-circuit controller and IP30 connection module.

It’s good to see more urban brands using soft-circuit technology and embracing the clothing 2.0 strategy of adding value to existing styles with wearable tech mods.

Recently this type of 3rd party  integration has become more common thanks to companies like Fibretronic and QIO systems with their controllers and connectors. No information on where to buy or how much the set costs, but stay tuned for updates.

It is interesting to see many of these recognized fashion brands keep up with the times by jumping  into wearables through up and coming wearable technology companies as opposed to internal R&D efforts.   That is certainly a promising sign for anyone wanting to step ahead of the big boys.

Wearable innovators: don’t forget about the strictly B2B route!

Via [Fibretronic]

The innovators over at Thinkgeek.com have created a very neat Personal Soundtrack Shirt with real speakers and a personal sondtrack player.

One very cool part of the shirt is the screen printed design. This is actually an innovation in itself because most wearables on the market right now didn’t start as cool designs. Most people put a lackluster design behind a cool tech idea and expect it to work. Webelow Wear prefers to start projects with a solid design and then make the cool technology blend with the aesthetic.

If you follow their site, you know that this shirt started as a April Fool’s joke product that they posted on their site about a year or so ago. At the time, it seemed ridiculous and impossible but everyone thought it was cool so they actually made it real.

ThinkGeek Personal Soundtrack Shirt

Video and more after the break…

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A very clever concept by German Designers Tom Mudra and Hans-Tobias Schicktanz – The Mosquito is the new urban E-bike. With a lithium battery powered motor, and sleek ergonomic design, it’s a great idea. We dig it, but thought a great improvement would be to not only have the batteries but to implement the technology Pluggage is using in their roller-bags: converting and storing kinetic energy , from your moving wheels, to electricity to power the motor. Just sayin’.