4 Examples Of Wearable Technology That Will Blow Your Mind

We like to refer to our light up shirts as being the next step in the evolution of t-shirts. Why make an ordinary screen printed shirt when you can make your message light up on our EL shirts at a comparable price?

However, our sound activated shirts are not the only fashion item pushing technological limits. There are quite a few pieces of clothing that still blow us away with how they have integrated new technology into fashion while affecting our emotions and psychology. This high-tech fashion can appeal to both gadget lovers and stylites. The following are examples of the new “smart clothing” that you will soon see more of.

CuteCircuit Twitter Dress

This is exactly what it sounds like: a dress that displays your tweets. Simply use the hashtag #tweetthedress and everyone can be a part of the technological display. This black evening gown has all the elegance of a Haute Couture dress with the technology to light up an animate live tweets in real time.

CuteCircuit designed this dress to commemorate the launch of EE’s 4G mobile network in the UK, and had Nicole Scherzinger wear it to their opening event. The Twitter dress is a juxtaposition of elegantly draped chiffon and 2000+ triangular Hematite Swarovski Elements used to light up the dress. Katy Perry has worn one of CuteCircuit’s light up evening gowns on the red carpet, and likely won’t be the last star to do so. Keep a look out for their couture light up dresses!

Cadbury’s Joy Jackets

Cadbury, maker of delicious chocolate and gigantic UK company, commissioned the team at Hirsh&Mann to create two interactive jackets that would react whenever you ate their chocolate. Their goal was to make wearable trench coats that would mimic the joyful sensation of eating chocolate. The display is multi-sensory, incorporating visual elements and even music to amplify the jubilant sensation that chocolate can bring us.

With special controllers made by Raspberry Pi the jacket is able to light up immediately as the wearer takes a bite of chocolatey goodness. The built in LEDs animate into an excited heartbeat on the chest before fanfare music blasts from hidden speakers. Then, the neck of the jacket puffs out behind you, revealing colorful fabric before confetti bursts out the jacket. I mean, if I could just always get this much of a reaction for mundane things like taking out the trash or doing my laundry I would probably get a lot more done. While this jacket isn’t exactly wearable all the time, it is an amazing PR move to make people excited for Cadbury’s new flavors.

GER Mood Sweater

Sensoree creates all sorts of wearable technology, but one of their most interesting pieces lights up to your mood. The GER or Galvanic Extimacy Responder, uses soft sensors located on the hands to read your excitement level and promote what Sensoree calls “extimacy,” or externalized intimacy. From the sensors, the data is translated into a palette of different colors that will change as your mood changes.

The set of LED lights is located in the high collar of the sweater around the larynx so that “the visual interface replaces speaking, as the wearer’s truths are instantly expressed with color.” Each color is reflective of what the wearer is feeling (i.e. red means love, yellow means bliss, purple means excited). These sweaters are a whimsical approach to the different forms of communication your body gives off.

The Navigate Jacket

Are you tired of looking at your phone or GPS to figure out where you’re going? Wearable Experiments has a solution for you with their Navigate Jacket. Inspired by Foursquare, this fashionable blazer integrates LED lighting and uses a companion app to store destinations and upload the turn by turn directions to the jacket. The wearer simply inputs their destination into the app, and the jacket does the rest. It can even find the best route to someone else who is also wearing a Navigate jacket.

The instructions are visualized onto the tailored sleeves and indicate the current stage of your journey until vibrations alert you to make a turn in a specific direction. This is a great item for someone who gets lost in the city like myself, and also does not want to walk around like a fool with their head stuck to their smart phone.

There are sure to be many more fashions that push technological limits. We will continue to evolve our line of light up shirts, and who knows, maybe they’ll be able to read your emotions or tell you where you’re going soon!