Wearable Electronics
Video-feed Sunglasses
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The Eyetop Centra is a pair of fashionable high-tech sunglasses with a built-in heads-up 16-bit colour LCD screen and integrated earplugs that lets wearers watch video content while engaged in other activities. Read More
Interactive Name Badge puts compatible people together
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May 27, 2004 American start-up nTAG has produced an interactive name badge for conferences and social events that significantly improves the quality of people-to-people connectivity. Based on years of research at MIT's Media Lab, nTAG brings social technology into the business event arena where both host and attendee derive numerous benefits compared to the paper badges of the past. While stimulating conversation between attendees, nTAGs also help organisers to deliver event information, track attendance, manage security, send messages, and evaluate surveys and polls in real time. Worn like regular paper badges, nTAGs exchange data with one another using infrared sensors. As attendees approach each other, information is automatically transferred from tag to tag, requiring no action from the wearer. Then the tags' LCD screens illuminate and display information on shared interests -- "Hi Karen, we both work in the fashion apparel industry." Read More
Solar Powered Jacket from SCOTTeVEST
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One of the most remarkable debuts at the 2004 CES was the a solar power jacket prototype designed to allow wearers to carry, connect and charge their portable digital devices. Developed jointly by ICP Solar Technologies and Technology Enabled Clothing company SCOTTeVEST, the solar jacket will go on sale in February 2004 in several models with prices varying from US$200 and US$400. Read More
Bluetooth MP3 Snowboarding Jacket from O'Neill
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Infineon Technologies and O'Neill Europe unveiled the result of a joint product development project on January 14 - their first 'wearable electronics' snowboard jacket with functions such as an MP3 player and mobile telephony by Bluetooth.The jacket will be known as "THE HUB" and technologically clued-in snowboarders will be able to purchase the jacket when O'Neill's 2004/05 winter collection goes on sale later this year. Read More
Retro-fit heads-up display system for motorcycle and bicycle helmets
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Fighter pilots have had it for years but Formula One drivers have only just begun experimenting with heads-up displays, so it was unexpected to find Motion Research Corporation showing their forthcoming consumer heads-up display for motorcycle and bicycle helmets at last Friday's 23rd Annual Cycle World International Motorcycle Show in Seattle. Read More
Sci-fi glasses become fashion eyewear
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A set of glasses that receive data directly and discreetly on an integrated miniature screen have been shown at CeBit 2003. Eyetop, the first commercial pair of glasses with an integrated monitor can be connected to all digital devices... Read More
Frog Design and Motorola unveil a new family of wearable devices
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Sports sunglasses that incorporate a heads-up display, wrist-worn PDAs with voice control and intelligent pens that store a digital copy of your handwriting - these devices will form part of an integrated family of wearable devices under development by Motorola and frog design Read More
LED light glasses re-set the body clock
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Australian Researchers from Flinders University have developed special LED light-glasses designed to re-calibrate our biological clocks and overcome problems such as insomnia and jet lag. Read More
Wearable, High-Res Display for Pocket PC PDAs
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Pocket PC users can now utilise a wearable, high-resolution secondary screen with four times the viewing area of their standard PDA. Read More
Our Clothes are Getting Smarter
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Clothes have done much more than serve as protection from the weather for tens of thousands of years. Over the last few millennia they've been worn as statements of rank and fashion, adapted for countless specialised uses from military combat to surfing and bee-keeping, cut and tailored in every conceivable shape, colour, size and fabric, and become signposts for entire cultures.
Along the way clothing manufacture has embraced and developed many new innovations, and it seems a natural progression for micro-electronics and other emerging 21st century technologies to find their way into our wardrobes next to the zip-off tracksuit pants and the Moon-boots. The result: clothes are getting smarter.Smart clothing will both enhance its primary role as body covering and extend its functionality to keep us connected, entertained, relaxed, safe and healthy. Fabrics and designs with built in temperature control mechanisms will merge with invisible add-ons like mobile phones and MP3 players, sophisticated medical monitoring systems integrated into shirts will save lives and clothes may even provide us with our daily vitamin supplement. Read More
Olympus Eye-Trek finding myriad real-world applications
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More than just a cinema-on-your-face, the expanding range of Olympus Eye-Trek head-mounted displays are finding a myriad of surprising 'real world' applications. Developed primarily for use with DVD and gaming consoles, the Eye-Trek - which includes the FMD-200, FMD-250W and the Sony Playstation2 compatible FMD-20P - has found its way into dentists chairs and F1 simulators as well as being used for virtual reality VR training and simulation, entertainment and educational purposes. Read More
Wearable Computers - coming to a job near you
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Computers are shrinking, and new display technologies will enable professionals to wear an interface to critical information whilst they go about everyday business. Already military personnel, surgeons, pilots, and aircraft engineers are using them. Follow our links to the newest of these productivity aids. Read More
