Category — fashionable technologies

some impressions of the first prototypes

Leah Buechley, Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Colorado, developed a construction kit for electronic textiles in 2006.
The 2.0 version looks really pretty:

Each patch contains a surface mount (SMT) ATmega8 microcontroller and an SMT switch, LED and resistor and functions as a stitchable Arduino.

AWESOME!

(further informations: e-textile construction kit version 2.0)

Solutions for a display:

• DIY LED matrix / DIY Leah Buechley
• EL Panels wearable display for team sports
• Dotmatrix Arduino Matrix library
• Philips Lumalive / Photonic

Because neither the materials for a dotmatrix nor an EL panels were available I started to tinker with a LED matrix display: some images

del.icio.us – links / references

YouTube – videos about electronics & fashion

google reader – news, tutorial, stuffplusstuff regarding my project

Subject: Shopping Bag

look & feel:

In dependence to the images linked under “aesthetics ” , the style of the bag should be classified between the 1920s and 1955; the bag should look elegant; in addition it has to be robust (maybe waterproof);

Gentlemen + Golden Twenties = the style we need

…by the way…

links:

• the (all american) history of shopping (carts)
• The 20-2-40-Style-Syndicate
• The Costumer’s Manifesto – a historical overview
• DIY! Label design: #1 #2 #3

techique:

…display, some already existing solutions:

French Uranium-Jeans, allow customers to customize their jeans, thanks to embedded flexible micro screens that display scrolling text messages. The small screen comes in different colors and displays customized messages that can either be downloaded from the brand’s website or from the customer’s cell phone by text messaging.

DIY! make your own wearable LED display
tutorial by Leah Buechley;
You´ll also find this tutorial in the Craftzine.

.dot.dot.dot – another wearable display

Philips Lumalive – watch out on YouTube #1 and #2

Philips Photonic Textiles

…trigger:

I have three different states:

1. empty bag – nothing is displayed (maybe “I love Shopping”)
2. full bag – “Be a gentleman” is displayed
3. when a gentleman comes around and takes the bag – “a gentleman”, the word “Be” disappears

In order to differentiate the 1st from the 2nd state I could use a Force-sensitive resistor (FSR); but untill now I can´t figure out how to “recognize a gentleman”

Another solution could be a remote control for the bag. I have to figure this out.

resources

Simple Fonts & Electronic Solutions

conrad electronics

references:

• bYOB [build your own bag]
• interactive pillows – new communications through everyday objects
• urbanhermes. – urbanhermes applies a layer of information upon a bag, an object already infused with social meaning
• Xiao Li Tan ’s Storytelling Wearables
• Alison Lewis, Shiny Purse It lights up upon opening the bag and simultaniously reaveals a cusomizable message.

This is the problem

“Well I’m finding it harder
to be a gentleman every day
all the manners that I’ve been taught
have slowly died away
but if I held the door open for you
It would make your day.”
(white stripes, Harder to be a Gentleman)

This is my solution
The re-invention of the gentleman:
In my project I like to help boys/men beeing a gentleman and girls/women to make their life easier; when the shopping bag of the girl is too heavy the words “Be a Gentleman” appear on the bag; with this decent non-verbal hint, the boys technical trained attention focuses on the bag; and because of this really charming call, the girl does not need to ask for help (most girls do not ask for help in general…) and the boy take it with a smile; after he took the bag the “Be” disappears … and here we have a gentleman;

D R A F T

A E S T H T I C s