A couch that emotes

TechRepublic Senior Editor Teena Hammond tried out the EmotoCouch, a project from Microsoft Research on display at  ISWC 2014 in Seattle. The couch emotes various emotions when people sit on it. One person sits down and it turns pink and purrs softly, and if two people sit down, it purrs more loudly and changes colors.

Ballet Hero

The Ballet Hero garment is a learning tool created for adult beginners of ballet. It provides visual feedback to the wearer that convey errors in the essential movements of ballet. This design won the award for Functional Design for ISWC 2014.

Digital Lace

Digial Lace is a novel, multifacted textile that dynamically combines thermochromatic dyes with specialized constructed textiles. Digital Lace won the award for Best Fibre Arts for ISWC 2014.

S.A.R.A.

S.A.R.A. (Synesthetic Augmented Reality Application) won Best Aesthetic Design for ISWC 2014. S.A.R.A. explores the potential of using a mobile device as a unique and wearable musical interface by way of audio and video.

TellMe

TellMe was designed to treat Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) symptoms in boys by encouraging them to speak out and express themselves while playing with and enjoying the clothing. A child wearing the garment can naturally learn and practice how to express his feelings, emotions and opinions.

Baroesque Barometric Skirt

This barometric skirt offers dynamic data visualization. Rain Ashford, who created the skirt, said, “it has a barometric sensor. I’m taking that data and reflecting it in color as well as the temperature of the wearer.” The skirt is intended to look at the bigger picture of the data intertwined with the environment. The skirt features the likenesses of two weather gods from the Okami video game.

IEAD

This is IEAD (Innovative Explorations in Apparel Design to Create Engineered Outfits with Lighting Technologies). It was created by researchers at Cornell University.

Flowers on a Pond

This solar-powered LED dress works with two lighting models presented in a specialized pattern making system that accounts for these special technical requirements.

Naero

The Naero is described in the research paper by MartarnCecconi, Giovanni Caputo, Beatrice Baruzzo and Rudy Faletra as a “wearable object that helps
managing the physical exercise in a more efficient
way.”

The research paper said, “It is composed of two parts: a T-shirt made in a smart fabric that transforms the lactate present in sweat into energy and an electric circuit with an accelerometer and a Light Emitting Diode (LED) that
works as interface. The purpose of Naero is to warn about the passage to the anaerobic respiration, and help the person who’s doing the physical activity to prevent muscle pain and tiredness. When the LED is on it means that the fabric is starting to produce energy from the sweat, and the comparison with the data of the accelerometer gives important information about the performance of the user. This smart object can help
a varied target, from professional athletes to aged persons or people doing physical rehabilitation.

Oiko-Nomic Threads

Oiko-Nomic Threads is described in the accompanying research paper by Marinos Koutsomichalis, Afroditi Psarra and Maria Varela as a “collective art project for an algorithmically controlled knitting machine and open data.
The installation represents a system commenting on the notion of work through the production of a textile in real-time. By means of rethinking, modifying and
redefning the functionality of an obsolete knitting
machine and employing ffinancial data from the databases of the Greek National Manpower Employment Ou000eces as
well as selected patterns inspired by Greek folk art, a textile is generated algorithmically. This way, the woven textile is to be understood as both a document of its own
making as well as a dynamic base of archival resources which presents a computer-generated interpretation of the
original fnancial data.”

Argot

Argot is a wearable one-handed keyboard glove.

Matrix

The Matrix is a knitting textile made of two layers of fabric that incorporate conductive threads. Each layer has a structure that alternates conductor strips and isolating strips that give the material the resilience to get back in shape after a pressure solicitation. The Matrix was part of the E-Textile Swatch Exchange, which is a platformrnfor sharing physical work samples in the field of electronic textiles.

Excuse Me

This is a simple game designed to illustrated some slightly more advanced interactions with Arduino programming. Excuse Me was part of the E-Textile Swatch Exchange, which is a platformrnfor sharing physical work samples in the field of electronic textiles.

Conductive Blackwork Pattern

This Conductive Blackwork Pattern is based in medieval Egyptian “Blackwork” embroidery and has three conductive lines. It was part of the E-Textile Swatch Exchange, which is a platformrnfor sharing physical work samples in the field of electronic textiles.

Exobag V0.1

The Exobag V0.1 is a small Exobag LED. It operates on at a minimum of material cost. It was part of the E-Textile Swatch Exchange, which is a platformrnfor sharing physical work samples in the field of electronic textiles.

Knitted Breadboard

The Knitted Breadboard is part of a study into what extent punchcards can be used to knit electyronic. It allows you to test soft circuits in knotting, sewing or sticking them into the kitted piece and contains a line for power and ground and connection points. It was part of the E-Textile Swatch Exchange, which is a platformrnfor sharing physical work samples in the field of electronic textiles.

Embedded Flexible LED Strip

The Embedded Flexible LED Strip is part of a study into embedding the strips into felt using heat press vinyl and wool felt. It’s part of the Manifold Project by Meg Grant and Peter Tettelaar that explores “high DIY” ways of integrating flexible printed circuits with textiles. It was part of the E-Textile Swatch Exchange, which is a platformrnfor sharing physical work samples in the field of electronic textiles.