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Chic Gear to Suit Net Generation
Roland Piquepaille writes "In this article, BBC News Online says that fashion specialists and engineers are preparing the next generation of wearable computing fashion accessories. Current ones are too conspicuous and expensive. Joseph Dvorak, a researcher at Motorola US, predicts the computers and technology we wear in four or five years time will not draw attention to ourselves. And Dr. Dianne Jones from textile company SOFTswitch, maker of the Burton Amp jacket which integrates an Apple iPod, thinks that the wearable computing industry will grow rapidly. She says that in ten years, 20% of our clothes will incorporate some kind of electronic components. This summary contains more details and references."
She says that in ten years, 20% of our clothes will incorporate some kind of electronic components.
Unless she's including RFID tags, that 20% figure sounds far too high. I can't believe that one-fifth of socks, pants, underwear, shirts, etc will contain electronic components in 10 short years.
Also, how will all these clothes be cleaned? Will they be safe to throw in our 2003 "stone age" washing machines when 2013 rolls around?
Trolling is a art,
If the impending war against machines wasn't bad enough, now we're gonna have to do it naked.
Current Karma Status: Roadkill
Didn't he also say that in four to five years, everyone would be using his keyboards? We see how well THAT turned out.
Seriously, PDA's are really coming along, in a couple years you'll have a fully functional computer inside a PDA with free wireless and everything you need. And if you need to hide for a while, its easy to 'forget' your computer in the house or car. You can't really do that with clothing.
From 0% to 20% in ten years? That means about 220 million articles of clothing will be produced in the year 2013 for sale in the U.S. market alone.
Riiight.
Its amazing how much these researchers get blinders on and inflate the importance of their research. There must be a term for this.
um... sewing an ipod-sized pocket into a jacket somehow makes her an expert on trends in embedded systems?
Well hell, I can fit five AA cells in my mouth -- I say in 6 months we'll all be living underwater on the moon!
Now where's my consulting fee?
Let it out slowly.
Now chant.
"It's OK to spend part of my day away from computers and the Internet."
Repeat as necessary.
Wiggle your toes and clench your buttocks if that helps. Actually, that's good advice for any time of day.
--- Ban humanity.
Yeah. The world's first yearly-subscription laundry detergent.
Please help metamoderate.
On a related note, the International Symposium on Wearable Computing is being held this October 21-23 in White Plains, NY.
One of these days I'll attend one...
--The more you know, the less you know.
Will they be multi-threaded?
Now wheres my mobile phone?
Oh damn its in the wash..
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
It appears that your boxers are out of date, there exists a security hole that could allow your wang to show. A patch exists that could repair them, would you like to install it?
OK
Always Trust the Microsoft Corporation
I've been violated
"Is that a 30 GHz Opteron beowulf cluster in your pants or are you just glad to see me"?
"There are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare." - Blair Houghton
I can just hear the excuse some girl will come up with to not go out with me on a Friday...
"I'm sorry, I'm defragging my pants that day.