Communicator Clothing

coondoggie writes "The crew of the classic science-fiction show's Starship Enterprise wore small devices on their chests that they could tap to communicate instantly with their colleagues. Such communications technology is now closer to reality thanks to a Finnish company which this week demonstrated high-tech clothing that can send and receive messages via satellite. The demonstrator antenna, built by the Patria Aviation Oy company, looks like a simple patch of cloth but is capable of operating in the Iridium and GPS frequency band as part of clothing. The Iridium satellites allow two-way voice and data communication, while GPS provides positional data to the user. Iridium could also relay the position of the user."

Comments

!Classic

[Anonymous Coward]

"The crew of the classic science-fiction show's Starship Enterprise wore small devices on their chests that they could tap to communicate instantly with their colleagues."

No, that was the crew of the tenth-rate spin-off's Starship Enterprise.

Re:!Classic

[JustinRLynn]

This is not uncommon in reporting. See good old TVTropes's Cowboy Bebop At His Computer article for other examples. Also, just couldn't pass up the chance to give others the same wiki walk I got -- but if you need the next few hours, don't look.

Re:!Classic

[UnHolier than ever]

Need new moderation option: Evil.

Re:!Classic

[Canazza]

Having never seen Cowboy Bebop I don't know exactly what's wrong with that image (the article doesn't say, but It does get your point across :D), but I'm guessing that a) the character isn't Cowboy Bebop, b) It's a girl and c) it's not their computer

Re:!Classic

[bickerdyke]

Me neither. But I scrolled down.

First example:

The picture above shows the archetypal example, whence the trope gets its name. For the unfamiliar: The character is female. She is named Ed. And she is a supporting character at best. Cowboy Bebop is the show's name, where "cowboy" is a slang term for bounty hunter, and Bebop is the name of the main characters' ship. Also, for some reason, they capitalized the second "B" in Bebop. At least she's at a computer.

        * A computer that appears to be seven feet tall.
        * They wrote it as BeBop, with the second capital B, because that's the way it's written on the ship itself. Since the title only appears in all caps elsewhere, that's the official lower-case spelling. So Yeah...

Re:!Classic

[Canazza]

ah, I see it. Noscript prevented the on-page Javascript from loading the extra content. Stupid site.

Re:!Classic

[mlush]

Or perhaps xkcd

Re:!Classic

[Thanshin]

Need new moderation option: Evil.

The real hard choice is between Evil(+1) and Evil(-1).

Re:!Classic

[thejynxed]

Actually, Edward is one of the main characters, not supporting. 'Radical Edward' is responsible for quite a few of the main events that happen during the entire storyline - including getting Faye Valentine to finally go investigate and come to terms with her past. She may not have as many -action- sequences as the others, but her parts of the plot are definitely integral to the whole, and serve to advance the story in a way that some of the other 'main' characters do not.

Now, if you ask me, Ein was the real hero of the series, for too many reasons to list here. If you've watched the series extensively, you just might agree :)

Re:!Classic

[farrellj]

Actually, it's more like Vernor Vinge's novel "Rainbow's End" where the characters are able to interface with computers built into their clothing by how they move and what they wear. This allows for a fairly complex interface to ubiquitous "augmented reality"...much more immersible than just an iPhone or a set of i-glasses and a portable computer.

Obligatory Wikipedia reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbows_End

Re:!Classic

[bickerdyke]

Stupid Add-On?

Re:!Classic

[ZarathustraDK]

Kutulhu(+1), why settle for the lesser evil?

Re:!Classic

[Thanshin]

Kutulhu(+1), why settle for the lesser evil?

Cthulhu(+1), why settle for the lesser spelling?

Re:!Classic

[srobert]

Thanks for pointing that out Comic-Book Guy.

Re:!Classic

[religious freak]

Hey, I was thinking the same thing, and I'm sure other people were too. Except the fact that TNG was NOT 10th rate! It beat the crap out of TOS and was the best trek of all time!

/me points nerd death ray in AC's direction.

Re:!Classic

[jamstar7]

Kutulhu(+1), why settle for the lesser evil?

Cthulhu(+1), why settle for the lesser spelling?

Mebbe he was punning on Kubuntu.

Re:!Classic

[Random BedHead Ed]

It beat the crap out of TOS and was the best trek of all time!

Thanks for pointing that out, Kanye, but the award is being presented to TOS.

Re:!Classic

[retchdog]

Sort-of nitpicking: there's no apostrophe in "Rainbows". This is semi-important to the story.

Re:!Classic

[JWW]

Damn, I wish I still had some mod points!

Allrightium

[Anonymous Coward]

Cool, but I really dislike anything that makes tracking people any easier.

Re:Allrightium

[dougisfunny]

Communication must be hard for you if you dislike it so much then.

Re:Allrightium

[selven]

Communicating without revealing anything about yourself is not at all inconceivable.

Re:Allrightium

[SilasMortimer]

Why do you hate hiking boots?

Re:Allrightium

[iJusten]

The summary doesn't mention that Patria builds military ordnance. Those patches are meant for soldiers, not civilians (though civilian models might be forthcoming). Imagine how useful that patch would be on the field. It weights less than GPS/radio units, it's easier to wield etc.

When people mention that this is akin to Star Trek-military uniforms, they are completely right. This is for the armed forces.

Re:Allrightium

[RiotingPacifist]

You have to send signals, how can you do that without giving away your position! And for long range communication blanketing an entire country with signals just to you simply isn't something anybody can be arsed to do. While ham operators do it on short/medium range it does not scale well. The best anonymity you can hope for is separation of your number from your name and that the phone companies don't hand this over to just anybody (so if your in the US your fucked)

Re:Allrightium

[selven]

You don't have to send the message directly to your target. You send it through a wire (or over a wireless system with a 1m range) to a node which then sends it to a major node and so on, with 256 bit encryption and dummy messages constantly being sent so a wiretapper wouldn't know when someone was actually sending something. It's conceivable.

Re:Allrightium

[RiotingPacifist]

Short of using something like tor (huge overhead so nobody will bother), they can still backtrack all the hops till they are within range to catch you sending the original signal. Dummy messages just mean that your position (within your cell) is constantly being given away.

Anybody who wants to send you a message is going to need an address to send the message to, so either you have them send their message everywhere (huge overhead, nobody CBA) or you provide them with you address that limits you to 1 cell.

Sure its conceivable, just like anonymous internet access is conceivable, but its not very practical, so the unparanoid among us will always be giving our position away in order for communications to work efficiently.

Re:Allrightium

[selven]

And if you're not paranoid, you don't care about your position being revealed so the point is moot. If you are paranoid, the overhead doesn't matter - even 100x overhead on 1000 words of plaintext would these days transfer within seconds.

Re:Allrightium

[vertinox]

Cool, but I really dislike anything that makes tracking people any easier.

I'm sure you'll regret that when they can't lock the transporters on you when you are stranded on the surface of Tackion V.

chests?

[martin-boundary]

I thought the classic crew had to press a button on the wall and talk into the microphone?

Re:chests?

[CyprusBlue113]

Bad summary, the specific (first instance) show is Star Trek: The Next Generation. The origional series did not have wearable communicators, but instead, handheld devices.

Re:chests?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Captain Kirk would rather walk up to the cute Ensign, tap her chest, and say, "Do you mind if I use your phone?"

Re:chests?

[bickerdyke]

Oh come on....

perhaps meanwhile TNG became a classic too?

Re:chests?

[MichaelSmith]

LOL (in lieu of mod points)

Re:chests?

[1s44c]

Oh come on....

perhaps meanwhile TNG became a classic too?

Star trek - councilors in space. On a five year mission to find new life and solve its emotional problems.

Voyager or DS9 might become classics but TNG was crippled by political correctness.

Re:chests?

[PCM2]

Voyager or DS9 might become classics

Are you a betting man?

Re:chests?

[mdwh2]

Episodes of an 80s TV series were cripped by "political correctness" because they had Counseller Troy?

Blimey, is there anything that doesn't get labelled "political correctness" these days?

Re:chests?

[RiotingPacifist]

Political correctness my ass, it's no more crippled by politics than any good sciences fiction, it explores current and/or interesting political/emotional issues using new tech/settings. Star-trek TOS was an interesting action show but most of the episodes were pretty boilerplate (not to say they didn't have some good ones) it wasn't until they did the movies that it became a quality science fiction series. TNG (series not films) was the best series of the star-trek franchise . While i agree the idea of a councillor on the bridge is retarded, the concept of the extreme stress of being in space for prolonged periods of time is pretty common amongst good stories (e.g 1954-sucker bait, asimov where they have a psychologist who is effectively number 2 to the captain), the fact that she is allowed on the bridge in pyjamas is just something you have to look past.

Arguments can be made for DS9, which is good but that itself is a very political show often revolving around the politics of Bajor+The federation+Cardasians, and many of the episodes are just as political as TNG. While voyager is an interesting show they nerf the borg (originally nerfed by a TNG film but voyager really make them noobs) which are one of the most interesting concepts in star-trek. While both DS9 & Voyager are good shows you don't see the range of issues and interactions you get with TNG, they may all become casics but it will be TNG > DS9 > Voyager.

Re:chests?

[dcollins]

When the original post uses a definite article, "THE classic science-fiction show", that implies that there can be only one.

Re:chests?

[camperdave]

Come on! Even in Next Generation the communicators were badges that were added to the uniform, not built into it. No Star Trek featured any clothing with built in communicators (at least the Federation never had that tech). If you're going to count stuff like that, well then, we've had wearable electronics since the invention of the digital watch. No, wait! Since the invention of the walkie talkie.

Re:chests?

[mcgrew]

Only when they were in the ship. When they were on a planet they had cell phones. I'm still amazed that most of the "geew whis they'll never have this shit" shit is common now. I expected the STNG communicators by now; my old RAZR could call Mike by my pressing a button and saying his name, and it wasn;t much bigger than the STNG communicators.

TFS isn't just wrong about the "classic" part, the NG communicators weren't sewn into the uniforms, they were sort of pinless pins that were often removed for dramatic effect.

Clearly the submitter was a clueless youngster.

Re:chests?

[religious freak]

the fact that she is allowed on the bridge in pyjamas is just something you have to look past

Screw that, when took her out of pajamas and into a normal uniform, I was actually quite disappointed! :)

Re:chests?

[jamstar7]

Star trek - councilors in space. On a five year mission to find new life and solve its emotional problems.

"Captain, I sense... millions of horny geeks staring at my cleavage..."

Re:chests?

[drinkypoo]

So far the problem is power storage. A lot of things have come to pass from science fiction, but pretty much everyone was overly optimistic about energy storage density in the future -- I mean, we are IN the future that a lot of them foresaw, except that the batteries are bigger and the solar panels are shittier. I keep hearing that's about to improve dramatically; I am not holding my breath.

Otherwise, you can get a similar effect with your RAZR and a bluetooth headset. You hit the button, say "name dial" or something like that, and then say the name. Then it asks you if you meant several things you didn't mean, and you say "no" a few times, and then it comes up with the right one, then you say yes, then it asks you which number to call... okay, so Motorola isn't Lord of the Interface. I think their product names prove that. IMA CUT YOU WITH MY PHONE! RAZR BITCH!!!11!`1!

Re:chests?

[deprecated]

No. No it has not. Please turn in your nerd badge at the airlock.

Re:chests?

[mcgrew]

The only time I had trouble voice dialing with it was 1) it confused "Mike" with "Mom" and 2) in a noisy environment, like in a bar (where you'd have to go outside to hear anyway) or on the highway (where the voice dialing was the most useful).

But the battery in the phone I have now is about the size of a STNG comminucator. Take away the screen and the buttons and it would fit.

Re:chests?

[dasherjan]

Unless my memory fails me. TOS was called Star Trek. The show from the early 2000's was called Enterprise. As far as I know there wasn't a series called "Starship Enterprise". So I'm thinking that the submitter(?) was just trying to use an example that "everyone" could relate to. So that people could think wow the future is almost here! Why does it matter what series had them and what the definition of THE is. Check out the cool tech! :)

Re:chests?

[RiotingPacifist]

sory dude, I'm not the one that needs therapy!

Re:chests?

[Hurricane78]

Well, to my generation, TOS always was very silly. Weird people in 60/70s clothes and the like, fighting in an incredibly primitive way (eg the two handed fist on the back, or those "grandpa kicks"), lacking anything that could be called believable special effects or aliens, with primitive depth-lacking stories, and a main actor/team who acted like grunting animals half the time with their primitive philosophies. Impossible to take seriously. The only one I liked, was Spock, with his silly concept of pure logic as an ideal. ;)

Sorry, I am not saying this to hurt or insult anyone. I'm just expressing how it felt to me and others I know.

TNG on the other hand was nearly *wise*. Picard could have been the father/uncle you never had. A real leader. As opposed to Kirk.
Of course the aliens still were the complete jokes of having something glued to their faces most of the time. And they still lived in a totalitarian horror scenario world controlled by millitary. But at least they were scientists most of the time. And the stories were a big improvement. Sure, some characters were rather bad (Crusher, Yar, Pulaski, Lwaxana Troi), but the main Charakters were very great. But most of all I liked the episodes that really went beyond everything. And not those with some silly copy of a roman empire, the 50s or the like (those were horrible).

Re:chests?

[bickerdyke]

I enjoyed most that TNG was like a box of chocolates...

When watching a new episode, everything was possible. Comedy, crimestory, sometimes even science fiction :-)

As in

[Huzzah!]

Pardon me sir, I believe your fly is ringing.

Re:As in

[Huzzah!]

Or even, lends new meaning to the phrase, "Would you PLEASE hang up your jacket?"

Re:As in

[TimGJ]

Pardon me sir, I believe your fly is ringing.

No. I'm just pleased to see you...

Re:As in

[3waygeek]

So that's how Chuck Berry came up with My Ding-a-Ling.

Re:As in

[Telecommando]

That's why I always keep my fly on vibrate.

Woo-Hoo! I'm getting a call!

Re:As in

[electricprof]

But this brings up the next important decision... boxers or briefs? Thong? How much fabric is needed for a long distance call?

Re:As in

[theshowmecanuck]

I'm feeling a burning sensation. Has anyone seen my Faraday Underwear.

Awesome

[rossi]

Make it sew....

Re:Awesome

[L4t3r4lu5]

How long have you been waiting to use that?

The first run was September 1987, so that joke could be over 20 years old.

N.B. I looked it up on Wikipedia.

Re:Awesome

[rwyoder]

Make it sew....

Seriously, that is the name of a business in my town:
http://makeitsew.biz/misabout.html
It is run by a couple ex-musicians who are also Star Trek fans.

Keeps happening

[fridaynightsmoke]

Every now and then a 'designer' unveils a jacket or whatever with some kind of technology built into it (for the past ten years at least), and says that its 'new' and 'amazing' or whatever, and that its going to change the world.
IT WON'T. People DON'T WANT that stuff built-in to their clothing. It's uneconomic to build that stuff in to clothing. Not only do you have to manufacture the device(s) in question; you have to build them in to garments of differing styles, colours, sizes etc etc, and that utterly destroys any economies of scale.
Anyway, what happens when you need to wash this jacket? What about if you want to use the tech on a warm day? What if you want to wear a different jacket that day?

Re:Keeps happening

[Kinky Bass Junk]

I'd say its uses would be more in line with the emergency services, and the device would either be washable, or removable.

Re:Keeps happening

[Threni]

This is a breakthrough though, because for once it's not MIT!!

You're completely right, though - it's up there with that Captain Android professor twat who likes to get chips inserted just under his skin and pretend he's the first of a new species of android.

Re:Keeps happening

[Deviant]

Unless you are in the military - where you always wear the same color/outfit, weight and how much you carry needs to be kept at a minimum as well as there being a great need to commicate and for others to know where you are. This actually goes along with the Star Trek analogy a bit too because they were, arguably, military personnel.

But there is no money in selling things to the miltary right?

Re:Keeps happening

[MichaelSmith]

I have long thought that a mobile phone could be built into a hat. It could have a drop down heads up display. You could type by looking at the numbers on the screen. It could have two antennas which extend on either side of the head...

And you could answer the phone by slapping your hat on.

Re:Keeps happening

[JustOK]

What if you are inside and there are ladies present?

Re:Keeps happening

[Anonymous Coward]

Poster thinks a silly cap with antennae sticking out of it is high fashion. There won't be ladies present.

Re:Keeps happening

[admiralex]

Just as a point of clarification -- not that this poster is inferring anything wrong -- but the TNG communicators were not part of the uniforms, they were attached to the shirt like a broach. If you didn't want to be contacted/tracked, you took the communicator pin off and you couldn't be tracked by that method. Of course that didn't stop ship's sensors from finding you whenever they wanted to, but it's not as if they were implanted.

Re:Keeps happening

[10Ghz]

Every now and then a 'designer' unveils a jacket or whatever with some kind of technology built into it (for the past ten years at least), and says that its 'new' and 'amazing' or whatever, and that its going to change the world.

IT WON'T. People DON'T WANT that stuff built-in to their clothing. It's uneconomic to build that stuff in to clothing.

Patria is a defence and aerospace-company. So you wont be seeing this technology on some average jeans, but you might see it in military flight-vests, uniforms and the like.

Re:Keeps happening

[DoctorFuji]

Just as long its not a red shirt, which means you won't be around too long.

So its a phone then?

[MosesJones]

I've got this amazing thing that is just like something out of Star-Trek, you put it on your ear and it enables you to make and receive calls. I can even TELL IT WHO I WANT TO CALL and it automatically connects me with them.

Oh wait its a Bluetooth headset and a Nokia 6310i

2001 called they want the future back.

Re:So its a phone then?

[ceoyoyo]

The summary is stupid. We've had Star Trek type communicators, as you point out, since the nineties. This thing isn't anything like a Star Trek communicator because those didn't talk to satellites, they were direct device-to-device.

picture

[Anonymous Coward]

The article shows a poorly sketched picture - the type you'd do on MS Word Art when you were 12.

Going to the website, a proto example of is here

Re:picture

[ThomsonsPier]

They did. Their communicators were pin-on badges, as demonstrated by the way they removed them in some episodes. We can make those now, for goodness' sake.

Re:picture

[SilasMortimer]

A... a Brillo pad?

Flawed Technology

[cjfs]

If it's built right into the clothing, how will you attach it to other objects to get a transporter lock? Rip the sleeve right off? Also, the objectives page doesn't even include a status update on the Heisenberg compensators.

Amateurs.

Antenna, really

[Max Romantschuk]

If I'm reading TFA correctly this is more of an antenna an less of a full communication device. But very interesting none the less.

It would very nice to have a jacket that your phone could plug into for extended range, for example.

Re:Antenna, really

[Magic5Ball]

The retractable phone cords from tradeshows would easily serve that purpose if cell phones were more amenable to attaching and powering external antennae.

Star Trek practicality

[WarJolt]

If hitting your chest and suddenly talking to whoever you wanted to was practical then cell phones would have done it a long time ago. This has nothing to do with Star Trek. They want to find a way to make satellite phones sexy. Plus the communicator wasn't woven into the fabric. The show has communicators working when detached from the clothing.

Wearing an antenna???

[Ptur]

EEEK... I wouldn't want to wear a transmitting antenna *on* my body with the antenna being on the exact same spot the whole time... Sound like this hasn't been thought out very well.

Re:Wearing an antenna???

[cheros]

So, where exactly do you wear your mobile phone? Does that location change?

Re:Wearing an antenna???

[Ptur]

Actually, I try not to use a mobile phone, and certainly not wear it on me. In any case, the mobile would still be at least 2-3cm away from the body, but when it is in the tissue, we're talking 1cm and less...

Re:Wearing an antenna???

[cheros]

Congrats, you're one of the more sensible people.

On the plus side, the least sensible place to carry a phone happens to also filter out that habit in the future in a sort of Darwinistic fashion (if we indeed have a radiation problem): trouser pocket..

On that topic, my problem is that pagers do not work internationally, otherwise I would not expect an iPhone to be delivered tomorrow.. :-)

Re:Wearing an antenna???

[maxwell demon]

Given that my mobile phone is normally off, it doesn't matter where I wear it. I only switch it on when I use it.

Re:What's the point of this

[polar red]

they mentionned gold and I believe white gold (platinum) at least once.

Re:What's the point of this

[IBBoard]

White gold and platinum are two very different things. Platinum is a completely different element, where as white gold is just normal gold with other elements "polluting" it (the same as red gold). Not that I have any idea what any of that has to do with the original topic or the parent comment!

Re:I don't care...

[wjsteele]

Personally, I'd like them to call me when someone invents either part of it! Trans-warp or Beaming technology would both be very cool.

Just a prediction

[hyades1]

I doubt very much whether this device will take off in a big way until they develop a transporter to get you out of your lover's apartment before your spouse's camera crews arrive.

It's military equipment..

[Anonymous Coward]

Patria is a company working on defence and aerospace sectors. That should explain why the technology should not rely on mobile networks and why the "wearer" may want to have his/her position known by others.

(over)heating?

[An anonymous Frank]

If using the GPS for long periods can have your phone warm up significantly, (was it the iPhone?) then perhaps the antennas should be set in one's gloves, to keep your hands warm*, especially during the winter days.

In any case, having to keep a certain distance from the body (for safety reasons) pretty much keeps this sort of thing on outerwear only.

* That's right, I'm Canadian.

Alternative to clothing

[DoctorFuji]

Actually I would prefer the Dick Tracy concept of a combination wrist watch and communicator

Re:Alternative to clothing

[maxwell demon]

Well, maybe some future generation will be genetically engineered to grow an antenna in their skin. Of course with direct link to the speech centers in the brain, to directly communicate through it without actually speaking.

Well, at least it would be a nice idea for a Science Fiction story.

Incorrect

[PolarIced]

The crew of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" used the insignias you could tap on as communicators. The original Star Trek series had flip-open handheld devices which they wore on their belts.

Sheesh! What is Slashdot coming to these days?

Did anyone else...

[thejynxed]

...see the title of this article in their RSS feed and think, "Oh no, some jackass integrated wireless internet into sunglasses and chose Netscape Communicator as the browser!" ???

Electromagnetic Radiation

[DJRumpy]

Is anyone else wondering if your underwear will be lead shielded? Seems like the craze these days is all about cell phone radiation. What are they doing to do when the very close you wear are cell capable? ;)

Re:Electromagnetic Radiation

[ibsteve2u]

Is anyone else wondering if your underwear will be lead shielded?

I'm a little more worried about my underwear being off-hook sometime after I've consumed a burrito.

Re:Electromagnetic Radiation

[mcgrew]

The cell phone -- finally, birth control for men!

Re: Inconceivable.

[jimwelch]

You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means. ...
Hello! My name is ... You ... my ...! Prepare to Die! (fill in the blanks to meet current situation).

do i dare ask?

[in4mation]

How do you charge this thingy?

bugs / wires

[madeye the younger]

So, we can finally abandon the ancient, hoary plot device of the movie bad guys ripping open somebody's shirt to reveal a 1970's Radio Shack bug microphone/transmitter taped to their chest? Since a bug can now be anywhere *inside* the shirt material itself (or pants for that matter), important Mafia business will now be conducted in the nude?

Re:bugs / wires

[bosef1]

important Mafia business will now be conducted in the nude?

Thank you for that mental image; now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go put out my mind's eye.

oh yeah..

[mr_resident]

..vibrate mode...Vibrate Mode...OH YES! Call Me! Viiiibraate Moooode!! YES!!..YES!

Ooo a new classic!

[hrimhari]

Sorry, I don't know any classic sci-fi show named "Starship Enterprise".

Do you mean:
- Star Trek (The Original Series, no communication devices on the uniform)
- Enterprise (The most recent one, hardly a classic, still no communication devices on the uniform)
- Star Trek (The Movie, but was there any communication devices on the uniform? I don't remember)
or maybe...
- STARSHIP TROOPERS!?