Communicator Clothing

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Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday September 30, 2009 @08:07PM from the can-you-wear-me-now dept.

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."

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!Classic by Anonymous Coward · 2009-09-30 20:10 · Score: 3, Insightful

"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.
1. Re:!Classic by Thanshin · 2009-09-30 23:40 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Need new moderation option: Evil.
  The real hard choice is between Evil(+1) and Evil(-1).
2. Re:!Classic by Random+BedHead+Ed · 2009-10-01 04:00 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  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.
Allrightium by Anonymous Coward · 2009-09-30 20:10 · Score: 4, Insightful

Cool, but I really dislike anything that makes tracking people any easier.
1. Re:Allrightium by dougisfunny · 2009-09-30 21:03 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Communication must be hard for you if you dislike it so much then.
  
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  This is not the funny you're looking for.
2. Re:Allrightium by selven · 2009-10-01 01:31 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  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.
chests? by martin-boundary · 2009-09-30 20:12 · Score: 4, Informative

I thought the classic crew had to press a button on the wall and talk into the microphone?
1. Re:chests? by CyprusBlue113 · 2009-09-30 20:24 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  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.
  
  --
  a handful of selfish greedy people are no match for millions of selfish, greedy people -u4ya
2. Re:chests? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2009-09-30 21:11 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Captain Kirk would rather walk up to the cute Ensign, tap her chest, and say, "Do you mind if I use your phone?"
  
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  Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
3. Re:chests? by bickerdyke · 2009-09-30 21:11 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Oh come on....
  perhaps meanwhile TNG became a classic too?
  
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  bickerdyke
4. Re:chests? by camperdave · 2009-10-01 02:03 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  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.
  
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5. Re:chests? by deprecated · 2009-10-01 03:16 · Score: 2
  
  No. No it has not. Please turn in your nerd badge at the airlock.
As in by Huzzah! · 2009-09-30 20:13 · Score: 5, Funny

Pardon me sir, I believe your fly is ringing.
1. Re:As in by Huzzah! · 2009-09-30 20:18 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Or even, lends new meaning to the phrase, "Would you PLEASE hang up your jacket?"
2. Re:As in by Telecommando · 2009-10-01 00:29 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  That's why I always keep my fly on vibrate.
  Woo-Hoo! I'm getting a call!
  
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Awesome by rossi · 2009-09-30 20:15 · Score: 5, Funny

Make it sew....

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Keeps happening by fridaynightsmoke · 2009-09-30 20:24 · Score: 5, Interesting

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?

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1. Re:Keeps happening by Kinky+Bass+Junk · 2009-09-30 20:46 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  I'd say its uses would be more in line with the emergency services, and the device would either be washable, or removable.
  
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  Anonymous Coward
2. Re:Keeps happening by Threni · 2009-09-30 20:48 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  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.
3. Re:Keeps happening by JustOK · 2009-09-30 21:43 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  What if you are inside and there are ladies present?
  
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  rewriting history since 2109
4. Re:Keeps happening by Anonymous Coward · 2009-09-30 22:06 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Poster thinks a silly cap with antennae sticking out of it is high fashion. There won't be ladies present.
5. Re:Keeps happening by admiralex · 2009-09-30 22:41 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  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.
6. Re:Keeps happening by 10Ghz · 2009-09-30 23:10 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  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.
  
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So its a phone then? by MosesJones · 2009-09-30 20:25 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.

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picture by Anonymous Coward · 2009-09-30 20:27 · Score: 4, Informative

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
Wearing an antenna??? by Ptur · 2009-09-30 22:02 · Score: 2, Insightful

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:I don't care... by wjsteele · 2009-09-30 22:49 · Score: 2, Insightful

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.

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Incorrect by PolarIced · 2009-09-30 23:57 · Score: 2, Informative

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?
bugs / wires by madeye+the+younger · 2009-10-01 02:02 · Score: 2, Interesting

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?