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Wearable Technology Fashion Show
jlouderb writes "I know, it's been done before. But at the recent CTIA show I stumbled onto a wearable computing fashion show. It was weird. I had my camera and filched a copy of the show script. Combined together, you get a bizarre pastiche of scrawny models attempting to make phones, notebooks, video cameras and more into fashion statements. Just too surreal for words."
"I need a new pair of pants, my other ones have a virus!"
Semi-starved models flounced around the runway sporting mobile (and not so mobile) gear, accessories and smart clothing.
I realize that women have been getting into the geek market lately (with the iPod-mini, various games, etc) but man, I really don't see how this fashion show was giving me any inkling of how this stuff would look on ME.
90 pound models wearing sheer clothing and silver head gear, helmets, and carrying large backpacks isn't exactly what I think works.
Show me people dressed in t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Show me men/women dressed in business suits.
I'll have you know I've been wearing a VAX since the mid 70s.
Mobile power computing AND a good daily workout.
Beep beep.
A legitimate reason for cameras in shoes, besides for taking upskirt pictures. Technology rules!
Just kidding.
You don't load this page for the article.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
While this iPod jacket from Burton is probably not bizarre pastiche enough to make the fashion show, I'd say it's a practical example of Wearable Technology.
Wearable computing is a technology that simply hasn't come to maturity yet. Things need to get smaller. But as some further down this page have done lets look at the possibilities.
First, realize that the human body isn't designed to support any large quantity of hardware where most of the sensory organs are clustered, consequently we have to seperate the display from the CPU. The torso is an ideal place to put this sort of thing, both for weight purposes and for its relitivly easy access for the user (try typing on your head sometime).
As for applications, the possibilities are limitless. I'll stick to Augmented Reality for most of my examples.
1.) Imagine a surgon with a system capable of integrating the data from Xrays, CAT scans, and other probes on the fly and displaying that data in real time, actualy altering the view of the patients body. This amounts to fewer head movements, faster surgeries (particularly key in an ER), and fewer mistakes. This same principal can be extended to an auto mechanic, or any number of other occupations.
2.) Tired of lugging your laptop, cellphone, PDA, etc around? Meet the ultimate virtual office. A pair of MEMS projectors mounted on a pair of sunglasses traces the "office" in 3d onto your retinas. Tracking systems (much like those allready in use today) track the movement of your fingers in relitive position to your body. By tracking these movements the user can type on a non-existant keyboard and navigate a 3d "desktop" in real space. Metaphors provide interfaces for important applications. Integrate an audio device with this and you can easily move your entire office to the bench in the park without anyone being the wiser.
It doesn't take a lot of immagination to work out how this could be an amazing application. Yes, right now it looks like a bad cross between C3P0 and a Electircal Engineering project gone awry. Nonetheless, in 10 years you'll probably see it integrating into the lining of a designer series of jackets, sunglasses, and hats worn by every trendy highschool and college kid in the country.
This is a great excuse to post a nice slideshow of some hot babes. Great job.
It provides a great break to the workday, right around lunchtime.
Oh, and the new technology is nice too.
You're forgetting about the MOTR people out there. We all know that the most nerdy people couldn't care less about the look of their tech, they just care that it works. Conversely, no matter how cool it looks, the high fashion snooty types would never WEAR a phone. That's just too lowbrow.
/.'ers. Those are the people that these things target. Lots of disposable income, average IQ.
Ah, but then there's the majority of people out there that would think, "How cool is that phone! I have to get one!" Believe it or not, those are the people that drive sales like the iPod mini and things that seem wasteful to us
gg
Usually women's fashions require accessories. These require attachements and upgrades. Finally, something to bring geeks and models together!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I, for one, welcome our new, fashionable, overlords! (You saw this one coming)
#include "humorous_pop_culture_reference.h"
Are those breast implants or armor plating (blue bikini)???
Now that's wearable technology in action.
I don't know if it's just me, but the first model in the first picture is the only one who looks even half-Borg. What kind of technofashion show is it when the only man-made stuff visible under all that clothing and skin is gonna be the ol' Two of Thirty-Eight? Where's the chrome, dammit?
When I clicked on the link, I'd kinda hoped for something a little more like a wearable technology fashion show. (Ummm, and yes, we do need more women in Engineering.)
Motion to change venue to Fark and let the Photoshoppers have at it. All in favor?
Sub-etheric vibrations? Ectoplasmic vibrations? Good vibrations?
Danke tres mucho, tovarishch.
That could be potentially embarrassing, no?
That redhead certainly gets me glowing.
Danke tres mucho, tovarishch.
If you think the pics look funny now, just wait 50 years. It will be the equivalent of a 60's mod girl with a reel to reel strapped to her ass.
The folks at the Eckert Mauchly Corporation in Philadelphia (makers of the UNIVAC computer) staged all kinds of stunts like this.
They once had a woman in a Maidenform bra pose next to the UNIVAC for the "You Never Know Where The Maidenform Lady will show up next" ad campaign.
Also many then famous celebrities posed with the UNIVAC like Angie Dickinson, Pat Boone, John Wayne and others.
If Microsoft gets involved, would some poor woman show up at an event only to discover the gizmo attached to her dress has malfunctioned and she's wearing a Blue Skirt Of Death?