Barry, speaking of some strange future uses for computers. Take a look at this article...
Fashion Show Touts Wearable Computers
3.35 p.m. ET (2035 GMT) February 13, 1998
By Janelle Brown and Theta Pavis, ÿÿ
BEVERLY HILLS, California (Wired) - Wearable computing has, for several years, been the most visible of MIT Media Lab's technology projects. Currently, a group of 20 "human cyborgs" on the Massachusetts campus wear portable computers, cameras, global positioning system devices, keyboards and screens every day. Although the bulky get-up is nifty, it isn't sexy, and only high-end researchers sport the pricey gear.
But Wednesday night at the opening event for the Networked Entertainment World conference, the California Institute for the Arts and the Media Lab coproduced "The Body Electric" technofashion show to demonstrate what wearable computing can do for both fashion and entertainment.
The result? Blinking green lights.
"Imagine never being lost because you have on your body a computer, a GPS system and a map and it will whisper to you 'Turn left here,"' enthused Alex Pentland, head of the Media Lab's perceptual computing section. "It would make you omniscient in certain ways. It would change who you are."
The wearable systems envisioned by Pentland and his researchers are of the portable-desk variety. The fashions demonstrated at the show, on the other hand, were each based on one concept or technology and were more gee-whiz than utilitarian.
For instance:
In an ensemble called the Wear-amin, components of a theramin were imbedded into a black dress with gold wings and the antennae of a turquoise lame outfit. The effect? When models danced, the theramin produced the wavering, hollow, whining sounds - woo-OOO-ooo-ooo - that made the instrument the stock supplier of sound effects for science-fiction movies in decades past. Another garment system used Doppler radar and motion sensors to translate the rantings of a suited man into a symphonic cacophony.
Two of the more abstract fashions sewed computers directly into clothing.
"Meme Tags," small LED displays, were strung together as necklaces and vests. The tags flashed words and sayings to "facilitate conversation" among models wearing glitter platform shoes and lame. And one rather puzzling outfit stuck a computer screen on the front of a silver hooded dress that apparently generates images based on biofeedback.
The clothes that made the more jaded audience members perk up, however, were light-based. Several outfits used diaphanous, conductive fabrics laced with red and green LED lights triggered either by touch or by static electricity generated by movement. The audience favorite was the Body Tilt Sensor: full-body webs of light-emitting diodes attached to mercury switches that could gauge body orientation. When the dancers writhed about the blackened stage, the blinking lights would change color from green to orange to red based on their movements.
While most of the clothes shown seemed to be more entertainment oriented than fashion oriented - suitable more for performance art than for streetwear - the Body Tilt Sensor appears the most likely to be translated into clothing.
"I love it - it's like a toy, like a Nintendo 64, but you get exercise wearing it," gushed Jemille Bailey, who performed in the outfit and says he and his partner have been wearing them out on the street. It's perfect clubwear, he noted - if you can afford the $15,000 price tag.
In fact, few of the fashion ideas seemed very street ready - although the technology itself is getting noticed.
Pentland said conductive cloth has caught the attention of the high-fashion industry; MIT is currently talking to Armani about its uses, he said, and the Media Lab is being sponsored by Levi's and Nike.
Pentland concedes that some rather straightforward, practical ideas for wearable computing - such as shoes outfitted with a GPS, power supply, and computer to allow parents to track their kids - are still far from becoming reality.
Although the technology may look great on a catwalk, he said, few manufacturers are ready to attempt to build, market, and sell high-priced technogear at a Kmart near you.
Pentland predicted that these fashions will become feasible, as wearable computers become significantly smaller and cheaper.
"In recent years we've gotten rid of the geek look," he said, displaying an image of a wild-haired man in oversized black-rimmed glasses, the latest version of the traditionally head-engulfing computer goggles. "He looks like a normal person. ... Well, we're talking MIT here."
And although the technologies are certainly smaller than your average laptop, the problem with most of the fashions was simply where to put the computers. There was a preponderance of butt-packs and elaborate skirts with Victorian-style bustles.
As show producer Derek Nye Lockwood laughed, "The bustle is coming back in - it's a great place to store a lot of computers."
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Leave it to those nutty wizard kids at MIT to come up with these. :-)
Michael |
