Ether Beat are compatible garments that sense, process, transmit and receive the ECG wavelength. A singlet (Under Beat) houses the ECG electrodes and connects to either the scarf or the blouse.
The under garments are enabled with ECG sensors and processing equipment while the outer garments house signal processing equipment, small vibration motors, and radio transceivers. The garments receives the heartbeat wavelength of your remote friend/lover/relative and transmits it as vibration through your garment. Using inexpensive wireless components, tests have demonstrated the devices working up to a distance of 25 metres, in an electrically noisy environment. Future prototypes will utilise Bluetooth or similar technology to allow for a more remote 2-way transmission occur.
The project questions whether usage of the apparatus will encourage physiological empathy - the moderation of ones heartbeat to syncopate with that of the remote other; and emotional empathy - the establishment of a remote emotional linkage.
A project by Leah Heiss. Also by Heiss: the Empathy Vest.
Originally from we make money not art on December 31, 1969, 4:33pm
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posted by : beverly on 25 Jan 2006
INERS Passive-Dress Double-Gravity Suit System (more images: 1 and 2), by Hungarian artist Antal Lakner weighs about 40 kilos and you need the help of two assistants to put it on.
“The Passive Dress puts to the test one of the human body’s fundamental functions - holding itself in position against the gravitational force of the planet where we live.
Passive Dress changes the maintenance of the normal posture and stablisation of the body, i.e. the musculoskeletal load of pure involuntary existence, and simple movements, into hard physical effort.”
The suit is part of the Passive Working Devices, a sarcastic view on how hi-tech machines have changed people’s relationship with the environement and with their own bodies.
Forest Master - the saw bench
Lakner’s machines transform seemingly meaningful human activity into meaningless physical exertion, leisure activity and entertainment, whilst immaterialising work itself. Sweating 20 minutes on the wall-painting workout machine is no more absurd than spending the same amount of time on a rowing bench. Technological development and industrialisation have made us lazier than ever so we feel the urge to get some physical exertion in an “artificial” way.
See it at Positioning ? In the New Reality of European Art from Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.
Via Metroblogging Tokyo.
Related: The suit that makes you feel old.
Originally from we make money not art on December 31, 1969, 4:33pm
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posted by : beverly on 25 Jan 2006
Aussiebum, an Australian underwear company, has just introduced their newest line of underwear, called Essence. The underwear is made from microfibre, which is treated with acerola (a fruit high in…
Visit coolhunting.com for the full post.
Originally from Cool Hunting on January 6, 2006, 2:38pm
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posted by : beverly on 24 Jan 2006
During CES last week Ambient Devices announced a few new items in their line-up. Most exciting is the Forecasting Umbrella, which has a handle that pulses blue light when there’s a good chance of rain. The device is connected to Ambient’s proprietary network which allows it to know where it is and then download the local weather report. Next time you head out the door just glance at the umbrella and it will let you know if your should bring it along. Brilliant simplicity.
Ambient also announced a new Magic Mirror that looks like a plain mirror until you approach it—time, weather, traffic, stock or other information appear behind the glass and around the perimeter. Lastly, their series of information displays (weather, traffic stocks, etc) will be updated to use eInk for greater legibility.
Via Cool Hunting
Originally by Josh Rubin from Cool Hunting
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posted by : beverly on 24 Jan 2006
Remember the Sleeptracker,
the digital watch that could purportedly track your sleep rhythms and wake you only when you’re likely to be optimally
refreshed (i.e., not when you’re in the middle of a deep sleep or heavy-duty REM cycle)? Well, it’s got a stylish big
brother now, in the form of the aXbo, a sleek alarm clock that communicates wirelessly with a wristband that does
basically the same thing as the Sleeptracker: it keeps track of your movements throughout the night, gauging how deeply
you’re sleeping by how much you’re thrashing. You set a window during which it can wake you, and it waits for the right
moment within that space. Of course, the aXbo won’t help you sleep better, but it could help you wake up feeling a
little more refreshed — if you don’t mind shelling out €200 ($241) for the privilege.
[Via I4U]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Originally by Marc Perton from Engadget on January 23, 2006, 9:41am
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posted by : beverly on 24 Jan 2006
This flashlight is also a video camera, and while it’s designed for police use, it definately has a nice sousveillance ring to it. It’s super bright at 85,000 candle power and also can do night vision with infrared illumination. It comes standard with an LCD monitor, 2 hours of storage, and it can also take snapshots.
Unfortunately, like every other thing I talk about on igargoyle, this item is ridiclously expensive, but if you have 2.5k to play with, you too can own one.
[ Link via wired mag ]
Originally by nym from igargoyle on January 24, 2006, 5:10pm
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posted by : beverly on 24 Jan 2006
Stanley Ruiz‘ barong analog is a wearable electronic sound generator, based on the concept of modular synthesizers. Still in in beta phase but fully functionning, it has an oscillator circuit and a gate/mixer, plus an amplifier. The piece is then plugged into an amplifier/speaker system and the sounds are generated by electrical pulses (voltage).
Equipped with potentiometers and a photo cell for frequency modulation, barong analog aims to free electronic music from the confines of synth boxes and laptops and take it to a more performative level.
Via skonto.
Related: wearable piano, Sound suit, Ephemeral gumboots, musical ribcage, Sonic dress, musical gloves, remote VJs control, sonic city, etc.
Originally from we make money not art on January 17, 2006, 10:46pm
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posted by : beverly on 20 Jan 2006
The Fruitfly farm is Laura Beloff’s second piece in the same series as The Head, a “wearable sculpture” with a connection to the internet, a camera and a public access via sms.
The both pieces have a similar technical structure, which is accessible for the audience via mobile phones.
But while The Head is observing outwards the surrounding society, the Fruitfly farm observes a full society in small scale -the fly nest.
Both works address the society and surrounding environment as the their theme. The fact that they are wearables allows them to “live” among their audience.
Related: the Plant Backpack and the fabulous Beehive Hat, both by Harmut Stockter.
Originally from we make money not art
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posted by : beverly on 20 Jan 2006
A new project by La Fabricadecosasbonitas (The Factory of Pretty Things) has recently been awarded money as an “incentive for further production” by Vida 8.0. The Spanish activists plan to take 20 robot-demonstrators to the G8 summit, to be held in the summer of 2007 in Germany.
Their ANA project was inspired by a news article published in early 2005 on the Pentagon’s intention to send “robot soldiers” to Iraq in March of that year.
The ANA or autonomous non-violent agent project satirizes about the terrible consequences of dehumanizing armed conflict and mechanically systematizing the solution of political disputes. Given the amount of cynicism we seem able to assume, robots can replace people in some of their tasks, including killing. They might even become the actors in the new millennium’s protest movements.
The image above shows a first prototype. The superior part of the final robot could wear glasses equipped with camera, earings with microphones, clothes bearing protest messages and it would also carry posters with slogans. The inferior part is a robotic vehicle (inspired by Segway) equipped with sensors to avoid obstacles and police.
All materials are recycled.
Julio and Íñigo Fernández explained that the only difference for the manifestants is that “they won’t hold the posters in their own hands but they will hold it at a distance of one mile.”
Originally from we make money not art
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posted by : beverly on 20 Jan 2006
Alison Lewis has launched a brilliant website: SWITCH, an online DIY show where she and her friends focus on teaching young women about electronics through fashion and design.
In the first episode Alison and Diana Eng create a talking frame (using “ingredients such as nail polish and a dental floss container.)
Bonus: Alison was at CES, meeting and talking with people from Eleksen, Iqua, Chitter Chatter, etc. (video)
Originally from we make money not art on January 19, 2006, 2:16am
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posted by : beverly on 20 Jan 2006
A clip from the 1970 UK TV program “Tomorrow Today”, in which Sylvia Anderson, co-producer of the science-fiction UFO series, promotes the women’s Moonbase outfit as a practical fashion for the future, and Antonia Ellis models the outfit around London — 4.8 MB Quicktime 6
TAGS: 1970, futuristic, retro, science-fiction, UFO, vintage
posted by : regine on 13 Jan 2006
TapTap is a scarf that can record, distribute and play back affectionate touch for emotional therapy.
Based on haptic devices, taptap can be re-configured to record and play back the touch that is most meaningful to each user. It is made from felt in two layers: one grey one that faces the public and a pink layer that touches you and contains the haptic modules in specially designed pockets. Taptap can be worn as a regular scarf, and custom touch modules can be placed in powered pockets within to record and play back touch where and when you want it.
Three kinds of touch can be played back: the pressure of touch, the warmth of contact and the percussion of a friendly tap. You can record these sensations by placing the record/playback modules in the pockets of the scarf where they receive power.
To play touch back, place the modules where you want to feel the touch and wrap the scarf around yourself tightly.
Movie on the website.
Developed by Leonardo Bonanni, Jeff Lieberman, Cati Vaucelle and Orit Zuckerman.
The project is part of the second Seamless fashion show, to be held on February 1, at the Boston Museum of Science.
TAGS: emotion, pressure, scarf, therapy, touch
posted by : regine on 13 Jan 2006
Nano-Tex in Emeryville, Calif., manufactures nano-enhanced clothing with fibers that have tiny whiskers aligned by proprietary spines to repel liquids, reduce static and resist stains–without affecting feel. Nano-Tex plans to launch an extension of its Coolest Comfort family of patented moisture wicking enhancements for resin-treated knits and other cotton garments. The enhancement keeps consumers dry and comfortable by pulling moisture away from the body at least ten times faster than most resin-treated cotton fabrics available today.
Military PX stores stateside and abroad are now selling ArcticShield polyester socks from ARC Outdoors in Broken Arrow, Okla. They incorporate 19-nanometer silver particles within their fibers. Long known for its antimicrobial properties, silver has been used previously to provide protection against odor and fungus in socks. The material never bonded well with polymers, however, and needed to be applied as a spray, or woven directly into the fabric as an uncomfortable metal thread. NanoHorizons developed a proprietary process that solved this silver-to-polymer bonding problem. Now sold as E47 Polyester Master Compound, it helps to make a comfortable synthetic fiber sock with permanent resistance to odor and fungus.
Via Forbes: Top Nano Products of 2005.
TAGS: fabric, moisture, nanotech, polymer, resin, silver, socks
posted by : regine on 13 Jan 2006
