Program Accepted Design Exhibitions
ISWC 2017 Design Exhibition
Aesthetic Category
Breaking of the Dawn Jacket – Light in the Arctic Winter
Wearable computing for the winter context is so far little explored. As well as low temperatures, winter brings the contrasts of darkness, and bright snow-reflected sunlight. We present the Breaking of the Dawn winter jacket, which detects the ambient light level and utilizes LEDs to light the darkness. Thermochromic ink patterning on the jacket dynamically changes, to inform the wearer of high UV light levels. The garment is made from reindeer leather, reflecting the traditional reindeer herding industry of the Arctic areas.
Data Vows: Reimagining Ritual through eTextile Practice
Data Vows is a series of biometric sensing garments for near future commitment ceremonies. It imagines a world where these rituals are no longer sworn by words, but unlocked by displaying and exchanging our most sacred physical information: our heartbeat. This initial series is an exploration into wearable technology and e-textiles as ritual objects and design probes to critique embedded power structures within societal systems.
Digital Amulet: Smart Necklace
This project explores aesthetic territory at the intersection of wearable technologies with global traditional cultures and contemporary fashion design, providing alternative ways for people across cultures to express and communicate in the networked, hybrid physical-digital domain. It is a form of smart jewelry, a smart necklace, or collar that lays flat on the chest, employs wireless and multimedia computing, including animation, music, networking, and 3D printing.
Hormone Couture : Biopolitics, Aesthetics, and Technology
Hormone Couture exhibition presents two wearable technologies that aesthetically respond to women’s reproductive hormone and body temperature changes. The designs address how technology creates a biopolitical issues whether the wearable technology empowers women by giving her access to biological information, or creates gendered oppression by having a technology that monitors, controls, and influences sexual behavior on the body. This contradictory relationship between technological advancement and gender politics was materialized into the work aiming to criticize and speculate the future of wearable technology, and how it reinforces dynamics of gender tension in society.
Le Monstré : An Interactive Participatory Performance Costume
LE MONSTRE is a responsive performance garment, changing the sound and projection of the performance space through audience interaction. As the audience is invited to investigate the garment through touch and pull, capacitive and resistive strain sensors relay the interaction as wifi MIDI signals. The garment was designed as an investigation into the technology and arts collaborative design process.
Fiber Art Category
Grown Microbial 3D Fiber Art, AVA: Fusion of Traditional Art with Technology
Taking sustainable as the key aspect for future wearable in this eco age. Ava, is a foldable 3D form grown microbial textile with embedded lights.This paper explores potential uses of traditional arts into current technology applications in bio textile. With the novelty of exploring prospective qualities in this Kombucha microbial textile complemented with the use of self-designed origami folds and electronics. An art piece to celebrate the fusion of bio, traditional techniques and technologies.
Functional Category
Active Knit Compression Garments for the Treatment of Orthostatic Hypotension
Active knit compression stockings offer a new, dynamic, mobile, and untethered technology for compression therapy using integrated smart materials (i.e. shape memory alloy wires) that apply dynamic and controllable pressures to the body to provide therapeutic compression treatment for those suffering from orthostatic hypotension (OH).
Atta-matic:Mind the Body
A series of speculative and whimsical wearable devices that highlight the disconnect between our mind and body in sedentary lifestyle.This project aims to enhance our perception of how contemporary human-machine interfaces encourage and produce very particular body postures and gestures, which in turn shape behavior that becomes an automatic response. Keybod is a computer keyboard worn on the upper body that forces the wearer to be mindful of typing. Click-kick are shoe covers that work as a computer’s mouse. Text-neck is a collar piece that disrupts its wearer, helping them avoid staying in a bad posture when using a smartphone.
Cosmic Bitcasting
Cosmic Bitcasting emerges from the idea of connecting the human body with the universe by creating a wearable interface that can provide sensory feedback on the invisible cosmic radiation that passes through our bodies. The project proposes the creation of an open-source, wearable detector, that can detect secondary muons generated by cosmic rays hitting the Earth’s atmosphere that penetrate the human body by triggering a series of embedded actuators (light, sound and vibration).
EVA Moccasin: Creating a research archetype to explore shoe use.
In this paper three separate approaches to recording use data are encompassed in a single shoe sole prototype. A shoe sole with electronic and non-electronic sensors is crafted using 3D printing of flexible materials from programed g-Code. The shoe and sole are constructed from a design process of “Prototyping as a vehicle for inquiry” [7]. The idea of slow technology is applied during the inquiry and new methods of non-electronic sensing are developed. Although many hours are spent developing these approaches, the shoe serves as a research archetype that attempts to asks questions about precision, design and sustainability.
HapticToolkit - Easily Integrate and Control Vibration Motor Arrays for Wearables
Haptic input is a common input method for navigation aids for visual impaired people, leveraging an otherwise unused sensory channel depending on the body region, but building systems with large numbers of vibration motors is rather complex. For this purpose we developed a system to easily and quickly build systems with largen numbers of vibration motors.
hitoeCap: Wearable EMG Sensor for Monitoring Masticatory Muscles with PEDOT-PSS Textile Electrodes
We present ``hitoeCap'', which has Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT-PSS) textile electrodes for measuring electromyography (EMG) of the masticatory muscles. Masticatory muscle activity is relevant to several daily activities such as diet, sleep bruxism, and human motor control. Our aim is to leverage continuous EMG data of the masticatory muscles for monitoring daily activities. For motion artifact reduction, which is a major problem for measuring EMG with textile electrodes, we propose a new algorithm based on kinesiology by utilizing a correlation coefficient between the root mean square of the right side EMG and that of the left side EMG.
Lumière: LED Smart Jacket
Lumière is a jacket inspired from an automobile’s signaling blinkers by allowing bikers to increase their visibility eliminating the need for hand signaling.
Motif: a wearable sonic cueing device for memory support and cognitive intervention
Currently, there are over 5.5 million Americans suffering from this disease. Inspired by this concept, we created Motif, a wearable device to support members of our society who need it most. By playing songs in response to particular people, places and situations, Motif is able to trigger memories and provide context.
Open Source EyeTap: Empowering Every Maker with Phenomenal Augmented Reality and Wearable Computing
We have seen enough advertising and articles on Smart Glasses, but it is still extremely hard for makers to get a Smart Glasses that is maker-friendly. This paper presents a new modular design for one of the first Smart Glasses - EyeTap. This design allows makers to design and make their own Smart Glasses with minimal budget. It enables people from different background to explore the possibility of real life integration of Smart Glasses including sensory augmentation (thermal vision, eye tracking, and distant vision), fashion statement, or education. This Open Source EyeTap designs devoted to make Smart Glasses truly accessible.