Author

Syuzi Pakhchyan

DIY 3D Model Printing Service

Personal Fabrication-Jewelry

Following the path of personal fabrication services such as Ponoko (for laser cutting) and Spoonflower (for custom textiles), Shapeways.com offers digital 3D model printing on demand. The service works in a similar fashion as all the other personal fabrication services do including an online community where individuals can share, rate and even sell their designs.

Personal Fabrication-Bowl

How the Service Works Simply upload a digital file and for $2-3 per square centimeter you receive a 3D model in about 10 days. Shapeways offers a variety of materials to choose from and color options of white, semi-transparent or black.

Personal Fabrication-Jewelry

Why is this important? It’s nice to see more and more of these services becoming available for individual designers and makers. As the cost of rapid prototyping equipment drops, Neil Gershenfeld‘s future vision of how personal fabricators are going to revolutionize the world doesn’t so distant in the future.

January 27, 2009 0 comment

Healthcare

Interactive Wearable for Visually Impaired

written by Syuzi Pakhchyan

Interactive Wearable for Visually Impaired

Winner of the Cologne Design Award, FiiWA (Freedom in Interactive Wearable Art) designed by Tracy Gromek combines interactive wearable technologies with sports to develop a suite of sporting equipment for the visually impaired. FiiWA system consists of a sensor vest, an electronic ball, Lyrca arm bands, and an electronic goal. The gaming system uses sound, vibration, and light cues to orient and guide players through the play area. How the System Works

Interactive Wearable for Visually Impaired

The FiiWA ball is a 10″ soft illuminated ball that uses sound (and light) cues to alert the player of its location, status and speed. Changes in pitch alert players of the ball’s status and speed. The ball emits a constant low tone while stationary, increasing its pitch as it moves faster. When airborne, it produces the penultimate high note and reaches its highest note when it comes into contact with an obstacle. The lights work in a similar fashion, moving around the ball in accordance to the ball’s speed and changing from blue-green to red when airborne.

Interactive Wearable for Visually Impaired

The textured surface of the ball along with the armbands enable the players to catch the FiiWA Ball (when the ball hits one of the armbands, it sticks) with ease. At the core of the system is the sensor vest. The vest detects and steers the player clear of obstacles in the player’s path (whether objects of people) using patterned vibrations. It is also smart enough to alert the player of the distance between him and obstacle, whether the obstacle is a player, and that player’s team affiliation. A separate signal around the waist orients players, informing them of the goal’s location in relation to the direction they are facing.

Interactive Wearable for Visually Impaired

The FiiWA Goal itself works with the FiiWA ball. When the ball hits the goal, a short tune notifies players that a point has been scored. Why is this important? Projects such as FiiWA indicate that the field of wearable computing is maturing. Unlike much of its predecessors, FiiWA is a complete system that integrates wearables with other tangible objects and the environment. The work is also developed for a very specific context: to “empower those with visual impairments to overcome the barriers of sensorial deficiencies and to realize new levels of independence.” A similar project more in the DIY vain is Lynne Bruning‘s Sonar Garment. Eric from TalktoMyShirt has written a nice writeup on the piece worth reading.

January 26, 2009 0 comment

Fashion

The Future of Interactive Fashion?

written by Syuzi Pakhchyan

The commercial above is for Playstation Network, but I find it to be a remarkable visualization of one possibility of what the future of interactive fashion may look like. From Hussein Chalayan’s “Airborne” video dress to Philip’s Lumalive Technology, designers and technologists are experimenting with embedding LEDs into fashion to create textile-based display technologies. Why is this important? It is as important to create possible future scenarios of the use and implementation of interactive fashion as it is to create the garment prototype itself. Scenarios help us conceptualize a use and context as well as consider the the potential cultural implications of these future products.

January 26, 2009 0 comment

Fashion

Fusing Fashion and Music

written by Syuzi Pakhchyan

interactive in-store audio installation

Tommy Hilfiger, for their latest campaign ‘My Jeans, My Music’, created an interactive in-store audio installation that fused fashion with technology. For the launch of a new denim range, five new styles of jeans were given a unique soundtrack. The soundtrack was “locked” inside the jeans and was “released” when swiped against a giant interactive audio cassette.

interactive in-store audio installation

The giant audio cassette is equip with an RFID Reader, car audio amplifier, subwoofer and speakers. The jeans themselves are embedded with RFID tags that when swiped against the giant cassette ‘released the music’. 38 cassettes were built and interactive retail installation was launched in 8 countries across Europe.

interactive in-store audio installation

Watch the “My Jeans, My Denim” video below. The installation was a collaboration between de-construct and kin design. Why is this Important? Probably the best known fusion of high fashion with high tech in a retail environment is Prada’s Soho store in Manhattan. The success of Prada’s high tech store concept is questionable at best and, consequently, fashion brands appear to be hesitant to fully embrace an interactive shopping experience. Hilfiger’s interactive in-store audio installation is perhaps a better direction for crafting a new technologically-enhanced retail experience. Lacking all the bells and whistles of the Prada store, which was packed heavy with experimental tech, it will also stay clear of all the technical mishaps. The installation is quite simple and the experience delightful without all the complexity and wizardry of Prada’s “Magic Mirror.”

January 24, 2009 0 comment

Fashion

Retro-Futuristic Fashion

written by Syuzi Pakhchyan

Pierre Cardin Space-Age Fashion of 1970. I discovered a lovely set of retro-futuristic fashion videos from youtube user cosmocorps2000. I find the futuristic fashion designs of decades prior both amusing and enlightening. I wonder how long (10 years? 20 years?) before all the forward-looking fashion archived on this blog will appear dated. Enjoy the videos! André Courrèges Fashion of 1968 (German TV) Gorgeous futuristic fashion from the 1960’s from designers like Pierre Cardin, André Courrèges, Paco Rabanne etc. Most of the scenes are from the German TV-Show “Paris Aktuell”.

January 23, 2009 0 comment