from the whole-new-meaning-to-'flashing' dept.
One of the most transformative technologies of the past few decades is the evolution of modular platforms. We started with big bricks, moved on to flip phones, and are now in an era of pocketable computers. They're multimedia Legos, capable of running apps, acting as the brains for hardware add-ons, and interacting wirelessly with other objects.
Borre Akkersdijk is trying to replicate that same evolution with clothing. Over the past few years, he's created several proof-of-concept pieces that reimagine clothing as input devices, Wi-Fi routers, and air purifiers. Depending on where his pieces are showcased, he switches up their technological functions to solve location-based problems.
Akkersdijk, who describes himself as a textile designer, studied at Eindhoven Design Academy in the Netherlands and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. After school, he began experimenting with different kinds of knitting techniques, and a few years ago he was asked to help solve a common problem with the first wave of truly wearable technology.
"The Technical University of Eindhoven were doing a huge project called CRISP on smart textiles, and they bumped into the same problem every time," Akkersdijk explains. "They were just sticking the technology onto the textile. It was just sort of a sandwich. And they were looking for new ways and base layers to put their sensor technology into."
Predicting the first blockbuster product: vibrating underwear.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Saturday July 04 2015, @03:13AM
Sorry, my router is in the wash.
Because we won't wear the same thing every day, we will need multiple of every device built into each shirt, dress, etc.
While this might work for an antenna, I see very little general advantage in embedding any part of tech into clothing.
Having any tech in your glad rags just makes you more suspect to the the security theater crowd, and provide one more
avenue for hackers to hack.
Not sure some of our basement dwelling members want anything their mom doesn't understand included in the cloths that she lays out every day.
Designer's gotta design, but this is a solution looking for a problem.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:09AM
Speak for yourself, Richie Richer. Thanks to Obama's Greatest Recession, many of us ordinary Folk can't afford to change clothes every day. You're just lucky we don't stink up the place while we spend entire days sitting in your favorite Starbucks, you know the place where you swing by in your Lexus to buy lattes. Soap and shower are cheap, but clothes and laundry are not.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday July 04 2015, @03:52AM
Er...Teledildonics [lehmiller.com] would like a word with you.
Not only does it vibrate, but can be remote controlled by somebody else. Good prank to play on the wife while she gives that important speech in the board of directors' meeting.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:29AM
A successful woman who gives speeches in board meetings is not going to waste her money keeping a useless husband who plays childish pranks on her. And since sex toys can give better more satisfying orgasms than any man ever could, why exactly are you even still alive? Go die in a ditch already, man.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday July 04 2015, @06:45AM
Hahaha....a man with a Tommy Gunn [amazon.com] extender is an order of magnitude more desirable than a mere piece of plastic, with its wimpy motor and unbalanced counterweight.
For men it's why a Realdoll is preferable to a pocket-pussy.
A successful woman can lay whomever she wants. Why would she rely on a primitive piece of plastic? In that case she's either lazy, gay, or she scares away every man she comes into contact with with her bitchiness. The misguided meme of "I have a vagina, so I have the upper-hand and can get anything I want" is quickly coming to an end now that it has been exposed in the face of truth.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:42AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday July 04 2015, @03:54AM
A few months ago zi attended a talk on smartwatches at mobile portland. One speaker wore more than one of them, and 24/7.
My first thought was that everytime he ever had to take a leak, that he was in the can somewhere. Consider Uber's Rides Of Glory. Do you want your clothes to tip off inspector clouseau that you did it in the parlor with the candlestick?
Upload the acceleromoter log when you wash your hamster?
Im heavily into computers but have come to understand the crucial importance of spending time away from them.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday July 04 2015, @08:45AM
All your clothes being tracking devices? I guess that would be the NSA's wet dream. Total surveillance unless you go naked.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Saturday July 04 2015, @09:14AM
the problem with "wearable technology" is that it needs batteries and batteries are generally incompatible with your washer and drier. what is needed is ultra-low-power electronics that run from an energy harvester built into the clothing. really though, we need to replace inflexible PCBs with something that is flexible in all three dimensions if you want it to be comfortable clothing. the only sound solution i can imagine (with current technology) is having the electronics and energy harvester on a super thin silicon die enclosed in plastic like a button on a shirt. if you need multiple sensors, they each get their own silicon and communicate wirelessly. it's currently expensive to make but that would result in real "smartclothes".
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Saturday July 04 2015, @06:09PM
Well, and it's a ONESIE. I'm not confident enough in my manhood to go walking down the road dressed up like a giant, exceptionally lumpy baby. (see: image in article link).
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday July 05 2015, @07:33AM
I guess in the early times of mobile phones you also would have denounced them, because who wants to run around with something like this at his ears? [wikimedia.org]
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.