Wired Design | Wired.com: The emerging field of smart textiles, known as "Wearables" or e-textiles, has gained considerable momentum in the past few years as enthusiasts continue to build more and more complex projects with microcontrollers that keep growing in power while shrinking in size.
The LilyPad Arduino microcontroller board helped bring a large developer community into Wearables with its debut in 2007; since then it has allowed many of those who dream of blending technology and everyday clothing to build out their ideas.
11 comments:
Well this is super cool. I don't see any immediate applications of the one in the video, but it would be so easily expanded upon if someone wanted to use it for some sort of effect on stage. I imagine that it would be pretty easy to get it to do something different like if you could implement different colors then it could change every time you blinked instead of turning off and on. Or on some sort of timer so you could have someones eyes light up during a show and continuously change color throughout or every time there was some sort of drastic change. Not very subtle but still pretty cool.
I think it's great that the idea of using technology to update the fashion world and costumes is getting more attention. Just today I saw lights being used in costumes for Dance Light and I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I feel like this is a great way to revolutionize and make us think differently about the materials we can use with costumes and sets and props and so on and I think it's a great accomplishment in general. I can't wait to see how much further technology will make its way into theatre.
The idea of fabric that changes with light is a cool idea however I don't see the techonology being used in theatre for a fair amount of time. Much of theatre replicates real life. Until this technology available and used as fashion their is no reason it will be seen in theatre. More abstract theatre however might find this a great reasource to increase the sepectical, however, I still don't see the practicality of lights that turn on and off when you blink.
I think this is an interesting concept especially in the world of fashion. I do feel however this is in the very early stages and is not practical for theatrical use. I think this is something that could be useful in terms of time and money. I think that the problem in regards to would be the cleaning of the garments. I certainly am not familiar with cleaning something with LEDs and I know that any dry cleaner would not know how to clean it. So it certainly does have useful properties but presently I think there are more negatives than associated with it than positives.
I agree with most of the other comments that there isn't a whole lot of application of these wearable items for theater, yet I think that Theater has been one of the driving factors in the development of the products. We are constantly searching for new, and often smaller, ways to work. Without that impetus, these products would not be getting small enough to incorporate on stage. Theater should embrace this new technology and continue pushing it as far as possible- we're the ones that can take these little devices and do incredible things with them.
This article makes me think to the Tron Costumes that were made with custom LED assemblies with a giant battery pack covered up by the Individual's Disk. It would be interesting to see what the costume team could have done differently if they had access to this technology. If these two concepts can be combined in some way then it could be easily applied to a theatre use. I am curious though what size proccessor or assembly these require in total (i am not familiar with arduino) becuase that would be the big hindering factor.
I disagree with a lot of people... sure some of these products may be in the beginning stages and might not be used onstage for a while, but I think that a lot of these ideas can be translated onto the stage and used in a productive and artistic way onstage already. Aside from the digital eyeshadow (which I found unnecessary and distracting... if it was marketed as anything other than digital eyeshadow, I might be more inclined to see its worth... even face headlights would be better), all of these ideas could be incorporated into the theatrical world pretty easily. A glove that can control sound and a dress that lights up as external lights dim could be used onstage pretty effectively. Even the technology involved with putting a breathalyzer into a jacket could be altered in some way to have a jacket with a built in heat sensor that the actor can control. A number of possibilities exist and I think that using these technologies and adapting them for stage use is a great way to incorporate the changing digital landscape into our art.
i have always been a fan of avant garde fashion, and well I fail to see the practicality of some of these inventions (the electronic eye shadow and the film dress in particular) I do see their place in the high fashion world: runway shows, add campaigns, etc. Thats not to say that wearables don't have their place. If the LED light sensitive technology used in the Film dress could be implemented into the shirts of road bikers to work as turn signals at night. Also, since lighting is so prominent in dance, some to the new light clothing technology could be used to dance costumes.
I love the idea of clothes being even more apart of you, and even more individualistic. I am so excited for what these movements in fashion and technology mean for the future. The arm pet that signals when you need to slow down and the breathalyzer jacket are two things that i can see being extremely helpful for people. especially in todays ever progressing lazy society where people forget to take there meds or blood pressure, if our clothes could do this for us it would be a lot harder to forget. And the electric eye shadow is just so interesting looking its definitely something i see being worn in the near future.
I've been reading about arduino projects for about five years now, including the lily pad. I think that wearable electronics can be very cool design tools. My mom does a lot of costume sewing and I've been trying to get her to incorporate these technology in to her costumes. She likes sewing but she seems scared off by the idea of electronics. I suspect that many of the other people who might gain the most form products like the lily pad will feel the same way about electronics.
In the world of theatre I see many amazing designs of costumes and props that incorporate the tiny computers. I hope that at some point this type of project moves beyond blinking LEDs.
I didn't really like any of these products. I guess they are huge improvements in the effort to combine fashion and technology, but some of the things they created seemed ridiculous. The digital eye shadow looked like the woman had a lightning bug stitched into her eye. I think that a glowing eye shadow would be very interesting and beautiful to see, but I see none of that here. The only object I found very enchanting was the LED dress. They reminded me of the Transitions sunglasses with an old film twist to it. The LED's make the film strips come to life and the whole dress looks magical. As for the rest, they all look like something I would find in Skymall magazine. The glove looks like a 7 year old boy's toy, but the idea of sound corresponding to the finger taps is very cool. They just need to make a better design. The superhero costume was very interesting, but still, movies will find it cheaper to use CGI rather than this technology in a real costume. I don't think many people would find it attractive if they saw someone blowing air into a hidden breathalyzer in their coat. Personally, I would be very concerned if I saw someone doing that. I don't know anyone who needs a wrist-animal stress ball, and the LED lights on the biker jacket are very small for a driver to notice. Coming from Arizona, where there are many bicycle accidents, I would probably not even notice those small LED lights next to the headlights of an oncoming car. Yes the idea is good, but again, there need to be some better design improvements.
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