Chlorophyllus, by Alix Gillet Kirt and Harsha Vardhan, explores a genetically modified skin that is being converted to a photosynthetic membrane.

Future ears, by Yufan and Hellicoper, is a human enhancement concept that explores the idea of additional and augmented senses. In the future, you can have 8 ears which can hear different frequencies of sound. You can pick one certain frequency and you can also mix two frequencies.

Explore more projects from the workshop at CIID.

Image at Fiskers.

During the design exhibit, Jesse and I demonstrated the Ping and Zip projects. For Ping, we did a live demo of the custom Ping application, which allows the garment to communicate with Facebook by performing natural gestures. Elizabeth Bales who presented a paper on how “Sensors meet Social” during the conference focuses her research on connecting people effectively through low maintenence mobile technologies. We had a great discussion on how we can communicate in subtle and expressive ways through wearable devices and interfaces such as Ping. She had some terrific feedback and ideas. Thanks Elizabeth!

One of the design exhibit show-stoppers was Sheridan Martin Small and Asta Roseway’s project titled “The Printing Dress”, which earned them the “Best Concept” award. Built out of paper, the dress enables the wearer to Tweet “thoughts” on to its fabric and wear them as public art. A gorgeous and thought-provoking project.

In general, taking the interface off the device and putting it onto the user through wearable technologies opens up a world of new types of experiences. I can’t wait to see where our collective work takes us…

Photos taken by Jesse Graupmann.
For more projects that were exhibited, GirlieMac has a nice collection of photos on flickr here.

• PROETEX – Final prototype (Carla Hertleer, Ghent University, Ghent, BE) – An advanced E-Textile system bringing together sensors, connections, transmission systems, and power management to be used in smart garments of emergency disaster personnel.
• ODITH – Interactive wheelchair posture monitoring system (Riccardo Marchesi, Texe srl, Firenze, IT) – A portable posture monitoring system “ODITH” especially developed for wheelchairs. Two textile pressure analog sensors are integrated in the chair backrest cover and two in the armrest covers, allowing a continuous monitoring of the upper body and arms.
• Active Belt to capture & process ECG signals (Kunal Mankodiya, Dept. of Rehabilitation Science & Tech., University of Pittsburgh, USA) – winner of SYSTEX Student Award 2010 – A wearable ECG chest belt named “Active Belt” which contains stitched textile electrodes for ECG detection and analog preprocessing circuits embedded in tiny cell-phone plugs.
• Heatable Coverall (Vera De Glas/Geert Hebbrecht, Sioen, BE) – A coverall including heating elements, connection wires with energy supply through a battery.
• Dance with Light - UGent TextielMobiel (Nicki Vlaemynck, University College Ghent, Ghent, BE) – A garment that can be used for playing the Sync-in-Team – social dance game. Integrated LEDs, accelerometers and a textile antenna ensure interaction between the players.
• A delicate phase of matter: a collection of liquid crystal colour-change surfaces (Sara Robertson, Heriot Watt University, Galashiels, UK) – A collection of flexible colour-change surfaces that demonstrate design potential for future directions in responsive surface design.
• Saturday Light Fever Super Hero (Evelyn Lebis, Swedish school of Textiles and Boras University, Boras, SW) – Saturday Light Fever is inspired by butterfly bio-mimicry and blinds the bad with brightness! A super hero costume with which the evil will be beaten through innocent appearance and dazzles with surprise effects.
• Flexible Light for Health and Wellbeing (Frank van Abeelen, Philips Research, Human Interaction & Experiences, Eindhoven, NL) – A ‘blanket’ for treatment of neonatal jaundice. Early born babies often suffer from this condition, which is visible as yellowing of the skin and must be treated with blue light.
• Human-computer Device integrated into Fire Fighter Jacket (Patrycja Bosowski, Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) der RWTH Aachen, Aachen, GER) – A garment that helps fire-fighting personnel on duty through integration of a keybord in the sleeve or the garment and textile buttons and textile transmission lines.
• Prospie 1st prototypes (Hein Daanen, Thermal Physiologist, VU-University Amsterdam, Department of Human Performance, TNO Defence, Security and Safety, Soesterberg, NL)
• A garment that incorporates a cooling and a warning system for the industrial worker in the heat.
• Communicating child’s jacket and mother’s purse (Inese Parkova, Institute of Textile Materials Technologies and Design of the Riga Technical University, LVA) – a smart child’s jacket and a mother’s purse, which are communicating using a wireless data exchange protocol
• Remote control pillow (Patrycja Bosowski, Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) der RWTH Aachen, Aachen, GER) – A pillow that incorporates a textile matrix serving as switch or remote control.
• UMIC Healthnet Shirt (Melanie Hörr / Till Quadflieg, Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) der RWTH Aachen, Aachen, GER) – A shirt that measures your measure pulse through textile ECG electrodes.
• Canvas (Malte von Krshiwoblozki, Fraunhofer-Institut fuer Zuverlaessigkeit und Mikrointegration IZM, Abteilung SIIT, Berlin, GER) – A canvas that gives light which can be adapted to different shapes and rooms.
• AXON superhero (Joost Aanen, Eindhoven University of Technology, NL) – A superhero that has full control over the energy in its body. The superhero directs his energy into his hand to vanquish his opponents with a stunning blow of light.
• Lightening Textile (Melanie Hörr/Ivana Cujic, Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) der RWTH Aachen, Aachen, GER) – A multilayered textile with integrated conductors and light emitting diodes.
• LUMINOUS CURTAIN & COVER (LC) (Miguel Ridao, SENSING Tex, Barcelona, SP) – A textiles with new functions for covering spaces or upholstery, and the emission of light.
• Intelligent rugs as pressure sensor (Ignacio Chanzá/José Gisbert, European Affairs -Textile Research Institute, Brussels, BE) – A carpet that stimulates blood circulation or can be used to control video.
• The NO Mosquito Shirt – From the idea to the market (Hélder Rosendo/Manuel Pinheiro, Technological Centre for the Textile and Clothing Industries of Portugal, PT) – A shirt that provides several levels of protection through micro-encapsulation of active repellent.

More at Smart Textiles Salon.

(above image from FashionWare SXSW)

TransNatural - March 4-April 1, 2011 – Amsterdam
TransNatural shows interesting attempts from art, design and science to fuse technology with nature. More info.

FashionWare - March 18-19 – Austin, Texas
Syuzi Pakhchyan of Fashioning Tech is curating a show at #sxsw‘s new fashion component in Austin, TX. Stop by her booth if you’re in the Austin area. More info.

Soft Circuit Weekend – April 2-3 2011 – San Francisco, California
Led by Instructor Lara Grant at The Gray Area Foundation for the Arts will start with the history of wearable technology and end with a hands-on workshop. More info via talk2myshirt.

Smart Fabrics Conference - April 4-6, 2011 – London, UK
The 7th annual Smart Fabrics 2011 will take place on 4-6 April 2011 at the Hotel Russell in London, UK and will cover topics such as the current status of innovative smart fabric technologies in the marketplace, as well as recent application breakthroughs and adoption. More info.

Intelligent Textiles Workshop - April 2011 – Ghent, Belgium
Just before the Smart Textiles Salon, theUniversity of Ghent in cooperation with Plug and Wear and Systex organize a two part, three day workshop on Intelligent Textiles. More info via talk2myshirt.

Smart Textile Salon - April 18-21 2011 – Ghent, Belgium
Besides informing people about intelligent textiles on a theoretical level, this workshop emphasis the practical application of the knowledge – from theory to application in real prototypes. More info.

Popkalab Wearable Technology Workshop – April 27th to 29th – Sede Tecnológica de la UNIA, Málaga/Spain
In this 3 days workshop participants will be introduced to wearable technology, special flexible and conductive material (conductive fabrics, threads, yarns and other soft and squishy materials), basic electronics and will develop a wearable project using the learned techniques. More info.

Pretty Smart Textiles (PDF) - May 2-3, 6-8, 16, 19 2011 – Herning, Denmark
The Exhibition Pretty Smart Textiles shows how fashion, art and technology elegantly work together to become smart textiles. More info (PDF).

Pretty Smart Textiles Workshop (PDF) - May 4 2011 – Herning, Denmark
In the textile industry of the future, innovation, technology and development are key words. Students will get a unique hands-on chance to learn about future textiles and the technologies behind. More info (PDF).

DMY International Design Festival - June 1-5, 2011 – Berlin
DMY Berlin is an international design network for contemporary product design. At the yearly DMY International Design Festival Berlin both renowned and young, experimental designers launch new products, prototypes and foresighted projects. More info.

ISWC 2011 - June 12-15, 2011 – San Francisco, California
The fifteenth annual IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers, is the premier forum for wearable computing and issues related to on-body and worn mobile technologies. More info.

I’m currently at #sxsw interactive in Austin soaking in all the ideas, conversations and people. I was pleasantly surprised when R/GA‘s Will Turnage stood up in his talk with Chloe Gottlieb titled The Refrigerator Speaks: The Secret Language of Things to show off his awesomely smart “rocker” garment. To make a point about hacking into #smartthings, he created a smart shirt equipped with a Lilypad, Bluetooth, and lights that could be controlled by your cell phone. Punch in some commands and the lights would illuminate. He even added gestures. Tilt the phone right and the right side of the shirt would light up. Tilt left, and the left would light up. He then explained how he used Twitter’s APIs to allow for the audience to tweet commands. Through the rest of the presentation, his shirt would light up as people tweeted about the presentation.

Turnage does a great job demonstrating how, as designers, we can take objects and services, augment them and combine them in interesting ways to create new and meaningful experiences. What are other ways to do this?

Check out this book they recommend referenced during their talk: Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design by Mike Kuniavsky.

Get a summary my sxsw visit so far on the Artefact blog.

Info from the event site:

Join Italian eTextile Master Troy Nachtigall and award winning textile artist Lynne Bruning for a unique 2 day workshop in electronics, textiles and fashion. Troy is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology and teaches fashion and technology at the University IUAV of Venice, University Sapienza of Roma and the Institute of European Design.

Special Guest: Nwanua Elumeze, founder of Aniomagic, will share his company’s hardware advancements in eTextiles.

Image from event site.

One of the projects developed at the GVU Center at Georgia Tech is this pleat interface made of embroidered conductive thread that senses which way the user strokes them. They state that the pleated interface can be used to control the volume on an MP3 player, select names from a phonebook, scroll a website, etc.

If anyone is able to make it to this exhibit, please send photos!

• Bonnie Sandy, the founder of FashionCamp and Brooklyn Fashion Week will speaking on the Impact of Technology on Fashion Design
• Macala Wright will speak on Using Social Media + Creating Your Own Web Content
• Ralinda Harvey will speak on “How To Create A Successful Fashion Line” without going broke
• Syuzi Pakhchyan of fashioningtech.com will talk about technology in fashion and provide an introduction to soft circuits and wearable technology

For more info, go to fashioncamp.org

According to V2_labs: Participants of the V2_ E-Textile Workspace will be submerged in the world of wearable technology for a day. Experienced workshop leaders will explain the aims and key concepts of the field, and assist participants to build a simple soft interface into one of their own existing garments. The workshop will be beginner level. Continue reading on V2_labs.

Visit electricfoxy’s events page for more conference goodness.