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Wearable Customizable Displays

igargoyle writes "France Telecom has done some fun R&D to display pixilated images from your cellphone on your shirt or sleeve. These raver garments can even be used as a standalone device that can animate based on sounds and gestures. With better resolution, designer memes and logos might become the hot intellectual property being shared by the young hipsters. Then again, maybe it will just be another place for advertisers to exploit."

38 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. Ads by DMUTPeregrine · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh dear. Penis enlargment spam saying the following: Is your penis this tiny?....

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    Not a sentence!
  2. animation ? by mirko · · Score: 4, Funny

    Could be cool to wear a demo or a game of life :)

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    Trolling using another account since 2005.
    1. Re:animation ? by DrEldarion · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ugh, I'm not sure I want shirts with animation. A lot of t-shirts are annoying enough already ;)

  3. Will be really interesting ... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... if T-Shirt spammers start to sent typical spam messages (probably with the help of virii). Imagine your T-Shirt suddenly turning to "cheap Viagra at www.somewhere.com". But even more interesting would it be for girls if suddenly a typical porn message shows up on their back ...

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    1. Re:Will be really interesting ... by aj50 · · Score: 3, Interesting
      This could take the hatred of popups, adware and spyware to a whole new level, especially if clothes have cameras.

      "I know who you are, I know where you live, I know your family, I know your girlfriend and where she works and all because you were dumb enough to download dodgey free software without using ad-aware regularly."

      --
      I wish to remain anomalous
    2. Re:Will be really interesting ... by Zone-MR · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ummm, why the hell would you expect the clothes to have camaras, yet alone support the execution of custom software?

      Is this a knee-jerk reaction to find an excuse to put on your tin-foil hat? It's nothing more than a semi-intelligent display which will let you upload an animated GIF. And even if they did have cameras (I still have no clue where that came from), they will be less flexible than your average mobiile-phone or digital camera. AFAIK my digital camera is NOT spying on me and my family because I didn't run adaware on it (!)

  4. Medical uses by furball · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This could be very handy for medical purposes. In normal uses, you can do whatever you want. But sensors inside the wearable can pick up that you're having a heart attack for example and provide the appropriate display on the wearable, eg. "I'm having a heart attack, call for help" etc.

    If you suffer a grand mal for example, it could give life saving instructions to people around on how to assist you in such a scenario.

    1. Re:Medical uses by nkh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "I'm having a heart attack, look at me, make fun of me, and stare at me for a few minutes before you realize this is not Real TV but real life..."
      I'm afraid this kind of behaviour is unacceptable, but people don't help each other anymore these days. I understand it's an off-topic rant about society, but I doubt this kind of display would help anyone, especially if you look at what happen to handicapped people...

    2. Re:Medical uses by FryGuy1013 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Why not "Help I'm having a heart attack.. wait let me send these electric wires into your heart and send some current to restart it." Seems better to me :)

      --
      bananas like monkeys.
    3. Re:Medical uses by node+3 · · Score: 4, Funny

      If you suffer a grand mal for example, it could give life saving instructions to people around on how to assist you in such a scenario.

      A: That guy's freaking out, I think it's a seizure or something... Hey, look at this display on his chest.

      B: Cool. Check it out, it can play Tetris.

      A: Don't you think we should help him?

      B: Two-player Tetris.

      A: Oh yeah?

    4. Re:Medical uses by Patrik_AKA_RedX · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not necessary. We could also save you by cutting it off.

    5. Re:Medical uses by velo_mike · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I'm afraid this kind of behaviour is unacceptable, but people don't help each other anymore these days

      How about this, when people stop suing each other for chickenshit things, I'll start helping. If it's truly life or death, I'll get involved: Choking, CPR, major life-threatening bleeding and I'm there until the medics arrive. Anything otherwise and I'll be more than happy to call 911 for you but that's where my involvement ends.

      It makes me sad to look at the world this way, but I'm also unwilling to put myself at risk unless the outcome is certain death.

      --

      At the bottom of the endless pile of paper work which characterizes all regulation lies a gun.
      Alan Greenspan

    6. Re:Medical uses by OneHungLo · · Score: 2, Funny

      If you suffer a grand mal for example, it could give life saving instructions to people around on how to assist you in such a scenario.

      Yes, and to make sure that it's an attention grabber, you could also have it say, "I'M HAVING A SEIZURE", in big, flashing letters.

    7. Re:Medical uses by velo_mike · · Score: 2, Insightful
      there may be laws that protect you if you try and perform first aid, for example, rhode island's "good samaritan" law.

      First, IANAL, but I am the only member of my immediate family not to be sued by someone after competently helping someone.

      Good Samaritan laws are your defense _AFTER_ you're sued, they protect you from incurring damages. The problem is, you still have to defend yourself in court: spend the money on lawyers, lose time from work, deal with the bad publicity that comes with being sued for negligence and the stress that comes with it. Fuck that, who needs it.

      --

      At the bottom of the endless pile of paper work which characterizes all regulation lies a gun.
      Alan Greenspan

  5. Nothing new with ads... by MagicDude · · Score: 4, Funny

    Then again, maybe it will just be another place for advertisers to exploit

    People are already paying for the apparent privilidge of advertising nike and Abercrombe and what not. If anything, it'll just become the rotating billboard of the fashion industry, every thirty seconds it changes to another advertisment. Now, the real problem is when the wrong types of ads flash across your chest. Think about it, you're trying to pick up chicks and an add like "Levitra helped me with my erectile dysfunction" comes up. Bad news all around.

  6. is this the "within 5 years" category from ars? by dan501 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    they're right - if anybody could properly exploit this technology, it would be burning man people. much better than the high-tech iteration of the guy who stands on the street corner waving a big arrow pointing toward the pizza joint or the apartments for rent.

    if they sell them as individual units that you can affix to fabric, I'd buy a bunch and make a shirt covered with them. with cameras in every haphazard direction.

    two things I would not do is use it to display pacman. nor would I make my outfit a star trek tng get up.

    --
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  7. Fashion to Finance by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If these were available widley, I have no doubt that people would link them up to mp3 player and walkmen so an avatar would bop to the music for all to see as they walked around, or the name of the song floated across.

    But how long before we see people walking around with T-Shirts displaying scrolling Benneton or Nike logos, animated unpaid advertisements, possibly updated wia the same AP that loads new avatars displaed on the side. We already have logos on our cloths anyway? maybe some would be proud to a 30 second commerical arounf with them

    Sooner or later, your shirts will display softcore porn ads as you eat breakfast and wait for the bus. Along with bilboards, TV, radio, signposts and probobly the pavement as well!

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
  8. This will bring... by Biogenesis · · Score: 3, Funny

    ..."Kick me" into the 21st century!

  9. Maybe? by tempest303 · · Score: 4, Funny
    "maybe it will just be another place for advertisers to exploit."

    Yeah, and maybe Microsoft would love to see SCO win their case with IBM...

    Is there really any question that marketing people would love to exploit something like this? Any surface they can manage to slap a brand name onto, they'll use.

    I'll leave you all with a little Bill Hicks:

    "By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself. No, no, no it's just a little thought. I'm just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day, they'll take root - I don't know. Kill yourself. Seriously though, if you are, do. No, really, there's no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan's little helpers, okay? Kill yourself - seriously. You are the ruiner of all things good. This is not a joke, you're going, "there's going to be a joke coming," there's no fucking joke coming. You are Satan's spawn filling the world with bile and garbage. You are fucked and you are fucking us. Kill yourself. It's the only way to save your fucking soul, kill yourself. Just planting seeds... I know all the marketing people are going, "he's doing a joke..." There's no joke here whatsoever. Suck a tail-pipe, fucking hang yourself, borrow a gun from a Yank friend - I don't care how you do it. Rid the world of your evil fucking machinations. I know what all the marketing people are thinking right now too, "Oh, you know what Bill's doing, he's going for that anti-marketing dollar. That's a good market, he's very smart."
  10. Pixilated images by ericvids · · Score: 3, Funny
    France Telecom has done some fun R&D to display pixilated images from your cellphone on your shirt or sleeve. These raver garments can even be used as a standalone device that can animate based on sounds and gestures.
    I dunno, but it's not my style to put pictures of animated drunk people on my shirt. ...

    Oh, you mean pixellated.

    (Previous comment might sound snobbish, but I learned the meaning of aforementioned word the hard way -- after the graduate aptitude test I took, where the friggin' word showed up. Not fun.)
    --
    Pet peeve: Profane people propagating perfunctory pedantry.
  11. Videos by Hufo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Two videos are available here. The page is in french but you can easily find the videos.

    1. Re:Videos by Knx · · Score: 2, Informative

      The page is in french but you can easily find the videos.

      FWIW, here is a (bad) translation of the 4th and 5th paragraph below the video links. Some technical aspects are detailed.

      The screen is connected to a mobile phone through a Bluetooth link which allows to send pictures or animations via MMS to another user provided with the same equipment. Thanks to an embedded software, the mobile phone is used as a remote control to enable the screen functionalities: brightness adjustment, choice of displayed patterns, text input, donwloading of animations from Internet ... An improved picture editor has also been developed to allow professionals to submit their own animations, which will be put online and made downloadable via Internet, using the mobile phone.

      It's also possible to use the screen in "autonomous" mode, using its built-in sensors (rendering of visual sequences, specifical animations according to physical activity, sound environment...).

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    2. Re:Videos by sploo22 · · Score: 2, Informative

      $ mmsclient mms://wmt-vod.video.francetelecom.com/www2.francet elecom.com/ftrd_2004/image_portee-hd.wmv
      $ mplayer image_portee-hd.wmv

      Now stop complaining.

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  12. Political use by CdBee · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Groups of demonstrators could use them en-masse to project messages onto prominent political persons or buildings.

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  13. More Pictures by Hufo · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here you can see other photos, including the electronic board.

  14. Natural Development of Technology by fuzzybunny · · Score: 2, Funny

    I claim that

    1. Pr0n drove the continuing development of the internet
    2. Internet pr0n is becoming increasingly technologically sophisticated and interactive
    3. Mobile devices are the natural extension of the internet
    4. Use of cell phones among children is increasingly prevalent
    5. Graphics from cell phones can now be projected on to your shirt
    6. Oh dear...

    --
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  15. Star Trekkers^H^H^Hies^U Star Trek people? by FryGuy1013 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is it me, or does the shirt remind anyone else of a Star Trek Medical Uniform? Certainly the type of person that would want to wear one of these shirts. (For the record my parents were members of a Star Trek club in Sacramento, and I participated some when I was a child)

    --
    bananas like monkeys.
  16. It's just wrong. Oh so wrong. by sakusha · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can'e believe the stupid demo videos. In one segment, a guest arrives at a conference or hotel or something, he is greeted by a woman with a high-collared jacket with a panel right above her tits, it's scrolling the message "bienvenue." I wasn't aware that women needed any technological assistance to get men to stare at their chests. If the women in this scenario truly wanted to make the men feel really welcome, they'd ditch the high collar and show some cleavage.
    But what went way beyond stupid was the video of the girl walking down the street, she sees a sk8r b0i, she wants to hit on him, so she grabs her cel phone and types a message "cafe" to the panel on her purse. Once again, a little cleavage would do a much better job of attracting a man. The purse's display panel was pointed backwards, hanging back off the woman's ass, so I guess if you wanted to attract people stalking you from behind, that would be the perfect way.

    1. Re:It's just wrong. Oh so wrong. by hattig · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't you know anything about the French?! :p
      That's clearly how they pull! I think they are more butt people than tit people too, hence hanging it off your ass is the sensible option. if you are too cowardly to actually go up to the person and ask them if they want to go to a café and hook up.

      I found the photos of poor France Telecom technical employees the best part. They looked slightly bemused with their Cyber Star Trek clothes.

      I expect I'll see these in Cyberdog by next year. Must avoid. I was only talking in the pub on Tuesday about animated clothing as well ...

  17. Invisibility Cloak? by oldwarez · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Could this be the basis for a viable invisibility cloak? You have a camera on the back and a camera on the front that hooks straight up to the shirt therefore making you appear trasnlucent. Would it be useful? Probably not. Would it be kickass? Yes. It does seem like a lot better of a method than the Japanese camera trick used to appear invisible. codeus.sexybsd.org

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    username:oldwarez password:oldwarez
  18. Maybe not for personal use - yet by WegianWarrior · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...layered in a fabric layered sandwich, which they claim is fairly comfortable.


    Maybe I'm not geeky enought, but given a choice I'll rather wear a t-shirt that is really comfertable and has a static picture than one thats fairly comfertable and interactive... but this may be just the next big thing in fastfood places and other retail related industries ("todays special is..."). And once the technology matures enought to show full colour video, we'll see teenagers walking around with not only the logo of their prefered shoes all over their chest, but actually the latest comercial for them.


    For me, that will be the day I'll officially start to talk about the 'good old days' ;)

    --
    Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
  19. New Microsoft T-shirt available by whimdot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Only in blue

  20. Re:Projected garments by random_culchie · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah thats all I need.
    Not only will my face go red with embarrasment my cloths will too!

  21. Practicallity? Battery use? by Zone-MR · · Score: 4, Informative

    Looks kewl in the R&D stage, but a 16x16 pixel LED display has obvious technical problems.

    Lets take the image in the photograph. It has about 3/4 of the 256 pixels illuminated. Thats 192 LEDs. Assuming the image is remain visible outside, in sunlight, rather than in a dark room, you would need bright LEDs, each consuming an average current of at least 2mA.

    So that's 384mA current consumption. To get through a 12 hour day (hardly impressibe battery life), you would need a battery with a 12*0.384 = 4.6Ah capacity. Your average huge+chunky laptop battery won't provide more than 2.5AH.

    The shirt is a great idea, but if I need to carry around a backpack with a car battery, or plug myself in to recharge every hour or two, I say no-thanks.

  22. Re:Shirt I saw the other day... by Cus · · Score: 2, Informative

    Quite common in the clubs. Cyberdog do a few, including heart beats and EQs.

  23. fashion trolls by prestonmarkstone · · Score: 2, Funny

    Imagine Britney Spears appearing on stage in electroluminescent garb, when suddenly some PDA-toting geek in the crowd hacks her pants and across her ass we see, "first post!"

    --
    I put the "wry" in "riot."
  24. NO Ads! by johnty · · Score: 2, Funny

    We can't have this... it'll make people wear adverts on them all the time... oh wait, they're doing that already.

    --
    I am unique, just like you, and you, and you...
  25. Wearable Displays by baelang · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This would be great for the back of a motorcycle jacket. a nice, bright, flashing display to warn off cage drivers. maybe even an integrated turn signal indicator.

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    --- BaeLang