Monday, February 11, 2008

Surveillance Vest!

I love this post (saw it on gizmodo via Danger Room)-- it is the perfect snapshot of where we are in terms of technology for Interactive Textiles... (at least in the marketplace). May I present the surveillance vest!

Discrete electronic components with a honkin' big battery pack. I seem to recall someone at a SmartFabrics conference refer to this as the "textile as a container" methodology. I really think we can do better (flexible polymer-ion battery, fiber-optic mic, textile button interface -- ok, admittedly the camera is a bit harder). But in terms of its actual application you might as well be wearing this:

The gizmodo posting is good, the comments are better. The company's website can be found here. It is obvious that their strong-suit lies in the back-end and infrastructure rather than the sensors and packaging -- but if the iphone and ipod has taught us anything it is that design and packaging equal adoption.

I've also read a good blog on why the spider-suit idea is dead in the water...I'll address that in the coming days...

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