subTela

A nice work that utilizes time through color shift. Not sure what the technology is to have the color change, but it looks nice and is likely pretty low tech. (most likely Thermochromic inks?) See more here.

Matthew will be presenting a short talk at SAT tonight…in addition:
Joanna Berzowska (Design & Computation Arts, Concordia University), Dominic Lam (IBM Canada Ltd.), and Mike Sisto (Ericsson Canada Inc.)
It should prove to be quite an interesting cross of industry/academics/arts…

for more info: http://www.interfacesmontreal.org/

Physicists from Austria and the U.S. have built ultra-thin pressure sensors which can be woven into sensitive textiles. In “Haute couture from the experimental physics lab,” they say that their new thin-film transistors (TFTs) can switch back and forth in reaction to pressure. To achieve this effect, they coupled TFTs with ferroelectrets, which are thin films of polymer foams. After demonstrating pressure sensors for replacement skin or ultra-thin microphones, they are now ready for interactive clothing. For example, these sensitive textiles could be used in hospitals to know if patients have left their beds. But haute couture is still far away…

from: Roland Piquepaille’s Technology Trends

Here’s an interesting collection of sudo-appliances that take utilize energy in their design. I think most of them are a really nice way to consider interaction outside of the standard display technologies that we’re used to. Nevermind that they convey vital information to the user in addition to the real functionality of some of them.

static!

Clothing that arranges the body

while more conceptually related to subTela, these folks are making some nice works. I’m particularly interested in the fact that they seem to be equally concerned with shielding the body as well as integrating the electronics. There’s a great set of links in the research section to peruse.

Just stumbled across this site and thought it had some intersting projects.
http://www.ifmachines.com