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Universities Collaborate On Air-Purifying Dress

ecouterran writes "From the ecouterre article: 'We have dresses to impress, for success, even to kill, but "Herself" must be the first drapery number to clear the air. A collaboration between the University of Sheffield, London College of Fashion, and the University of Ulster, the sweeping gown is part of a larger project to engage the public in the science of environmental pollution. "Catalytic Clothing" explores how textiles can improve ambient quality, and the self-described textile sculpture, is the first prototype to emerge. Highly experimental, according to the designers, "Herself" is designed to illustrate how fabrics can eliminate pollutants so we can "breathe more beautifully."'"

58 comments

  1. Needs cleaning before you wear it? by icebike · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sounds like this dress would need to go to the cleaners after simply hanging in your closet.

    --
    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    1. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by chimpo13 · · Score: 2

      I remember a few years ago, a slashdot article about how Ford developed a radiator that would clean air. I haven't heard about that since and since this dress is an art project, I assume I'll never hear about clothing like this being worn.

    2. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by kimvette · · Score: 2

      It actually went into production in the Volvo V70.

      --
      The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
    3. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by Virtucon · · Score: 2

      Which I unfortunately had one of. The worst car ever!!!! Yeah, presumably as you drove it helped spew baby seals out the tail pipe. Blah..

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    4. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by countSudoku() · · Score: 1

      Coincidentally, I've invented a bikini made out of Fram Car Air Filters. So, take THAT you drunken college students! I would have invented special filtering underwear, but Depends Undergarments are already on the market. Crap!

      --
      This is the NSA, we're gonna geet U h@x0r5! Also, what is a h@x0r5?
    5. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't all this products produce O3 as a by product?

    6. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by Cryacin · · Score: 1

      No, just plenty of hot CO2

      --
      Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
    7. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by blind+monkey+3 · · Score: 2

      presumably as you drove it helped spew baby seals out the tail pipe
      You should have got the Canadian model with the baby seal pacifier club as an optional extra.

      --
      BM3
    8. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by Suki+I · · Score: 1

      Sounds like this dress would need to go to the cleaners after simply hanging in your closet.

      I am way ahead of the curve. Everything I wear to certain smoky* places needs to go to the cleaners the next day.

      *Yes, I smoke tobacco and if I have a cleaning bill it was my choice.

    9. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by icebike · · Score: 1

      The fact that you can STILL TELL it needs to go to the cleaners says you could't smoke as much as you seem to suggest.
      Most smokers have no idea how bad they smell to non-smokers.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    10. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by Suki+I · · Score: 1

      The fact that you can STILL TELL it needs to go to the cleaners says you could't smoke as much as you seem to suggest. Most smokers have no idea how bad they smell to non-smokers.

      I was not saying that I produced all of the smoke in my clothes, silly. It happens in places where many people are smoking. At home, it is usually just me and occasionally my beloved smoking and we manage to keep it close enough to the air scrubber for it to handle.

    11. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Bah! You want to make Bill Gates money you need to develop some cute panties and G-Strings that kill chick farts at the source!

      Any guy that has had to deal with a gassy GF or taken some hottie to a Mexican restaurant (BAD choice) knows that a dozen drunken frat guys eating Taco hell creates NOTHING on the sheer level of chemical warfare as a single cutie can let loose upon the environment!

      I don't know what kind of demonic evil goes on in the female digestive tract but get trapped in the elevator with that little 90 pound babe with a case of gas and she'll make the fat judge at a chili cook off smell like roses!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    12. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by Antisyzygy · · Score: 1

      Sounds to me like this is the dumbest idea ever. Why not just make a massive industrial catalytic converter and charge industry the operation costs? Not that I think its necessary but the clothing idea is just dumb.

      --
      That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
    13. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by davester666 · · Score: 2

      No, I'm not rubbing my head in your tits. I have asthma and am trying to breathe through your dress!

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    14. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Would this same gassy beast have any problem with wearing mens undies...

      http://4skins.com.au/

    15. Re:Needs cleaning before you wear it? by K10W · · Score: 1

      by "stop at the source" if you mean simply stop intestinal processing in women they yeah sounds good

  2. Dress for less mess... by dwheeler · · Score: 1

    ... in the air, anyway. As a technique to "engage the public in the science of environmental pollution" this might even help.

    --
    - David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
  3. Utilitarian... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But does it mask farts?

  4. Any ideas? by bsquizzato · · Score: 1

    So, kind of a useless article from a technology POV since they are keeping it "under wraps". Anyone out there have any ideas or guesses as to what's accomplishing the "air purification"?

    1. Re:Any ideas? by Tekfactory · · Score: 1

      As someone else pointed out the article mentions sprayed concrete. The only air purifying element used in concrete is Titanium Dioxide. The real question is are there any other methods of getting Titanium Dioxide to have a decent surface area without using concrete as a carrier? Like tiny beads, threads?

      Maybe these will become fashionable in China.

      And from our last discussion on Titanium Dioxide said its in Toothpaste, almost every kind of paint, when will we have an Air Cleaning housepaint?

  5. Left out the face mask by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As usual, you get half the story from these people.

    Click a few links in and you get this lovely apparatus:
    http://www.ecouterre.com/odd-looking-breathing-necklace-filters-co2-stores-it-as-energy-video/

    A hood for her face so the C02 'pollution' you exhale can be captured, or something.

    Keep it up greenies.

  6. Eliminate pollutants? by eepok · · Score: 1

    Don't you mean "Capture"? A dress that eliminates pollutants could be just as bad as good. One that acts as a carbon sink, however, could serve some purpose... somewhere... I guess.

    1. Re:Eliminate pollutants? by russotto · · Score: 1

      Don't you mean "Capture"? A dress that eliminates pollutants could be just as bad as good. One that acts as a carbon sink, however, could serve some purpose... somewhere... I guess.

      The mob invented clothing which acts as a carbon sink some time back. Indeed, it is very useful. It was shoes, though, not a dress.

  7. Catalytic Converter Flaming Models! by Virtucon · · Score: 1

    I can't wait to see the first Model go down the runway and burst into flame! The Catalytic Converter Dress is upon us now!

    --
    Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
  8. Construction materials by Sooner+Boomer · · Score: 1

    TFA is woefully short on details, but I would guess that the fabric material contains titanium dioxide, a well researched photo-catalyst. A friend got her PHd on photocatalysis by using TiO in thin plastic tubes. Would be easy to embed in thread.

    --
    Chaos maximizes locally around me.
    1. Re:Construction materials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      TFA says the dress is made from sprayed concrete. I wonder how heavy and flexible it is.

  9. Drapes? by Gr33nJ3ll0 · · Score: 2

    This would make a LOT more sense as window drapes or something similar. Passively clean the air in your house, and look nice at the same time.

  10. Ewww. does she smell that bad? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Sounds like a trip to the doctor would be a good idea.

  11. Airudite? by chrism238 · · Score: 1
    "From the ecouterre article"?

    Why not from an airudite article?

  12. Yawn by McTickles · · Score: 0

    Yawn

    --
    twilightcampaign.net

  13. I call bullshit on this! by denzacar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Feel free to prove me wrong. No, really. I WANT you to prove me wrong.
    Not a single bloody link in that article (and there are 10 of them, plus a video) explains anything even close to how this idea should work. Prove me wrong, give me the information.

    My guess - it is another one of those bullshit "artistic" designs based on magic and "hey wouldn't it be cool".
    You know, those that don't bother to use even buzz-words like "nanotech", instead focusing on the Photoshop side of the idea.

    Oh, and if you like the dress, you're gonna love the breathing mask that cleans air, captures CO2 and stores it as electricity, mentioned in one of those links.
    I hear it works on special mushrooms.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  14. I Love It When... by GreenSeven · · Score: 1

    people take things that haven't changed in forever, and bring them up to date. Not to say that this is necessarily the greatest thing to happen to clothing , but it's great to see people evolving every day items...

    --
    The Copper Tribe - Office Software Solutions
  15. It works on unicorn semen by denzacar · · Score: 3, Informative

    That is why the top part is white.
    And as everyone know, unicorn semen is lighter than dirt, so the dress is darker at the lower part as the filtered dirt accumulates at the bottom of the dress.

    Only downside is, once the magical properties of unicorn semen get used up, you must wash it in dragon tears.
    Preferably a Chinese dragon. European dragon tears don't have the right level of pneuma to reload the dress in one washing.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    1. Re:It works on unicorn semen by BJ_Covert_Action · · Score: 1

      Well at least that's not the worst thing I've read on the internet today....

    2. Re:It works on unicorn semen by asylumx · · Score: 1

      Been over at Fox News again, eh?

    3. Re:It works on unicorn semen by operagost · · Score: 1

      Huffington post, reading an article by Helen Thomas. With a picture on the byline. *shudder*

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  16. You know what might also "engage the public"? by denzacar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Superman.

    About as scientific as this dress. About as real too. Maybe more.
    After all, he's been around forever and someone just farted this dress up only recently.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  17. Can it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cook dinner too?

  18. Sounds fairly ineffective by Plazmid · · Score: 1

    So according to this article it takes 40 people wearing these to purify 2 cubic meters of air in a minute. Each of which needs to be in direct sunlight as this probably relies on a photocatalyst. At this rate it'd probably be far more effective for these 40 people to bike or bus instead of commuting by car.(Of course, one could put the photocatalyst in the pavement, but that's already been done) And not to mention, given that these dresses likely use a photocatalytic mechanism, they do nothing about particulate pollution.

    1. Re:Sounds fairly ineffective by MiniMike · · Score: 1

      They look like they'll be effective at cleaning floors, unless worn by an unusually tall person. Agree that it doesn't look effective at cleaning air.

  19. Machine washable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it machine washable, or will they have to pollute the air with dry-cleaning?

  20. Green Tacos by __aatirs3925 · · Score: 1

    LMAO, I JUST watched "Taco Bell Turns Green" on the Onion and the tacos would clean the air and reduce carbon emissions as you're eating. I think this is a neat idea if it prevents the girl's farts from smelling because I think we can all agree here that girl's farts and bathroom breaks are worse then men. (in b4 negative points by female mods)

  21. I used to own a unicorn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But this wasn't any common unicorn, it was the rarest of the all: a brown, hornless version!

    I was the hit of my neighborhood. Once everyone knew that I possessed the rarest of unicorns, no one wanted to ride their boring Arabians, Pintos or Mustangs. Everyone wanted to take pic with my brown, hornless unicorn. Can you imagine my surprise when I discovered my already rare unicorn had yet ANOTHER feature that made it even rarer?

    IT COULD NOT FLY!!!

    I'm very surprised some villain didn't try to kidnap my rarest unicorn, or some hero didn't summon it to help on a quest. He was a gentle spirit who enjoyed munching on the grass and walking around like a common horse, in fact his inability to fly didn't seem to dampen his spirits. He ended up living a nice normal horse age, but the memories of my rare brown, hornless unicorn will always stay with us.

    1. Re:I used to own a unicorn. by tepples · · Score: 1

      IT COULD NOT FLY!!!

      Unicorns don't fly, and neither do horses. Pegasoids are the ones that fly.

  22. Lack of info by operagost · · Score: 1

    I read the article, but found nothing about exactly which pollutants it's supposed to affect.

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  23. Stupid article by jklovanc · · Score: 2

    This has to be one of the most vague articles I have ever read. Here are some things it misses;
    1. What pollutants does it purify? Heavy metals in the air would not be effected by a catalyst.
    2. How such clothing could be cleaned?
    3. How long will the dress be effective?
    4. It says two universities were involved. What departments in those universities? Fine Art or Engineering? If it is the Fine Art department I would question the feasibility and effectiveness.

    Even the technology as described is questionable. It would take 40 people one minute to 'purify' 8 cubic meters of air. That is a lot of people for a little bit of air.

    In the article it says the dress is made with sprayed concrete but actually links to this which is cloth impregnated with concrete. The cloth becomes rigid when water is added and it is allowed to cure. A rigid dress is a sculpture not wearing apparel.

    This looks to me like one of many artsy concepts that have little or no basis in science and questionable use as fashion.

  24. A more immediate use by Caerdwyn · · Score: 1

    If this works, can they make tighty-whities out of these? Perhaps my co-workers will then allow me to have Indian food for lunch without banishing me from the building.

    "Dammit, who's turning the air green again?"

    --
    Everybody gets what the majority deserves.
    1. Re:A more immediate use by K10W · · Score: 1

      They made them already. Undies which have micro silver particles in them for sweaty beasts. I heard socks are available too.

  25. Mmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1) Shoe inserts to remove odors
    2) A dress that purifies air
    3)...
    4) Sound proof underwear!

  26. NOT TRUE! by denzacar · · Score: 0

    So according to this article it takes 40 people wearing these to purify 2 cubic meters of air in a minute.
    Each of which needs to be in direct sunlight as this probably relies on a photocatalyst.

    You and your fancy photo-moto words. Not everything has to be explained by "science". BAH! More like... schmience. Yeah!

    It should be clear even to a blind person that this dress, and similar clothing that likewise don't really exist other than in an animated form, would use MAGIC.
    YEAH! You didn't expect THAT! Did you!? Mr. Sciency McScience Guy.

    This dress will be made by fairies and it will use magic to clean not just air, but water, radioactivity, bad karma and miasma.
    Just you wait and see.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  27. Why a dress? by KiwiCanuck · · Score: 1

    Why not a dress shirt for my smelly co-workers?!

  28. To my down-modder... by denzacar · · Score: 1

    What did you do with the rest of your mod points?

    I mean, it is clear that you are not mistaking jokes for trolling.
    After all, you didn't down-mode a post just like this one that includes unicorn semen. That one has a +3 Informative moderation.

    So... Mod points. Are you keeping them for later? Or are you hoping they will replace the balls you clearly lack?
    I'm sorry to inform you, but... mod points don't last forever. That is what "Use them or lose them" means.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  29. Help, help! I'm being oppressed! by denzacar · · Score: 2

    And my oppressor is a humorless jerk with mod points.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  30. Whoosh! by denzacar · · Score: 0

    Kids these days... Can't tell a joke without a laugh track accompanying it.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  31. Watch it... by denzacar · · Score: 1

    You just pointed out that the article is made of canned bullshit.

    There is a chance you might get modded down as troll.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  32. Fart Safe... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Awesome... Now you can indulge on the pleasures of farting in public and keep a clean conscience !!!! ;-).

  33. Even so... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...you must admit that my brown, hornless unicorn was quite rare, even when talking about unicorns in general.