Computational Couture: Looking Good and Dresssing Well

Around here, "computational couture" means shorts and t-shirts in the summer, jeans and hoodie in the winter--and running shoes year round. If it is a formal occasion (say the boss is in town), the t-shirt is clean and likely has a Dr. Dobb's logo on it.

But around MIT, "computational couture" means something different--"wearable technology," as the case may be. And to showcase emerging designers in this field, the Boston Museum of Science recently hosted a fashion show, appropriately named Seamless (get it?), that featured experimental works in interactive clothing. To be included, each project had to express a seamless relationship between technology and fashion. Okay, I couldn't make it (my techno-tux was in the repair shop), but it sounds like it was a lot of fun. Among fashions you could see were:

• A solar-powered handheld fan that is charged while used outdoors during the day, but when brought indoors in the evening, it transforms into an ambient light display.
• A jacket that promotes interaction with people via contacts on the outside of the arm-sleeve that correspond to different musical tones as people touch each other.
• Boots that change shape based on the speed of the wearer. An accelerometer tracks the user's speed and expands the boots.
• A skirt made entirely of pockets with magnets mounted on the bottom layers that gathers metal scraps and remnants.

Hmmm, maybe you had to be there. In any event, computational couture, wearable technology, or whatever you call it is a topic of active research at the Tangible Media Group (part of the MIT Media Lab) where topics such as Touch-Sensitive Apparel, The Sound of Touch, and the like are looked into.

As for me, I need to reboot my running shoes.

-- Jonathan Erickson
jerickson@ddj.com

Posted by Jon Erickson at 11:36 AM  Permalink