Slashdot Mirror
Another Look At High-Tech Fabrics
prostoalex writes "CSMonitor takes a look into wearable computing and digital fabrics. To quote the article, 'many anticipate [this sector] will become one of the next hot drivers of the American economy'." I find the Foster-Miller wearable cables an especially neat technology.
The fabric contains electronic wires and tiny capsules of a special thermochromatic ink that get darker or lighter as they are heated or cooled.
hehehe...just like HyperColor shirts, except it's electronic.
,
faeryman
But it's not REALLY good until it's under the skin. You won't leave it at home, and they can't take it away from you at the airport. Sensors could keep track of your position and posture, allowing you to watch yourself walk down the street like something out of tomb raider. These clothes with wires would only be worn by children, because they are still growing.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
....until you get ripped apart at the airport like Steve Mann.
I want one of those jackets from Back To The Future Part II, you know... the ones with the auto-dry feature and adjusting sleeves. Yeah, I want one of those.
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
Are these the switched fabrics I keep hear about:-?
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Now what we need is a way to connect all these fabrics.
What would be cool is a way to arbitraily address a paticular quality of a device (display,sound, shape...) or data(temputare,video, audio...) by location rather than specific device.
Then our wearables could interact with our enviroment and other peoples wearables.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
Here's what would happen. The initial temp difference would power a generator, which would power internal cooling of you. this would decrease the temperature gradient through the clothing layer, decreasing the efficiency of the AC. but remember, the gadget is preventing heat from radiating away from you quickly, increasing your temp slightly. in the end, you'd not be able to get enough energy to cool down appreciably, and that energy would be from food, which is more expensive than duracells.
Of course, natural and/or synthetic fibres can be of any color. Fibres transmitting light are uncolored. They take the color of the light source which is connected to them.
Now add in a couple of digital controls, and you'll be able to flash colors like a cuttlefish
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
And if the eClothes followed familiar interface trends, the Mac clothes would look cute and stylish, the Windows clothes would look functional, and the Linux clothes would look like they were designed by 15-yr olds with poor color sense. But the clothes of some linux-wearers with the perverse command line fetish would be black, with a little bit of white.
... to make them transparent!
"We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it" -- Winston Churchill
The best things to come of this will be things like a coat that would notify you when threatening weather was approaching or a jacket that could monitor a pacemaker that could monitor your heart rate.
Or how about a bulletproof vest for police that sent an emergency signal to the dispatcher if a seal is broken (shot fired). Maybe even tennis shoes for kids that could help authorities locate the child if they were lost/kidnapped.
...playing _The Man in the White Suit_, one of the old Ealing comedies from the fifties. Guinness plays a scientist who comes up with a fabric which doesn't wear out and doesn't ever stain or get dirty. He ends up in hot water both with the textile and clothing manufacturers who don't like the idea of garments that don't need constant replacement, and with the textile workers' unions because they're afraid that Guinness's invention is going to put them out of work. Complications ensue.
hyacinthus (who thinks the whole idea of wearing a computer or even carrying one in a pocket is pretty daft. Even my watch is mechanical--and it's lasted about twice or three times as long as any digital watch I've owned.)
Surely it is safer to assume that many Christian Scientists (and many nerds) have some interest in the wider world which the editors of their targeted news services might sometimes attempt to make allowance for.
Just to get this back somewhere near on topic, I have long felt smart fabrics could be the killer app for nanotechnology
It is not too hard to imagine redundancy and even self repair built into wearable systems.
What is a bit harder is the how we get there from here question, especially when we don't seem to be able to see a way past worrying about crumpling optical fibres.
-- Our systemic servants do not good masters make.
The Christian Science Monitor may be from a bunch a religious zealots originally, but it is one of the better newspapers these days, trying to be very even handed with the editorial.
Need I say more?
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.