Detect air pollution levels in your city with this helmet

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This sensorial wearable prosthesis provides a new human sense.

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From handheld devices that mapped air pollution, to smart umbrellas that sensed it, to creations that turned offensive air into enticing art, we thought we’ve seen it all when it came to Makers and their surrounding environment. That was before coming across this wearable project by Maker Susanna Hertrich. Living with poor air quality seems be what most of us are doing these days, particularly those of us who happen to reside in metropolitan areas such as Beijing or New York City that are filled with exhaust, smoke and an omnipresent haze that never seems to fade.

Cognizant of this, Hertrich has devised what she calls the Jacobson’s Fabulous Olfactometer (JFO), a head-mounted contraption that offers sensory augmentation for the human olfactory system under extreme living conditions of polluted cities. While the device may not resemble other wearable devices on the market — and appears to better suited for steampunk attire or medieval times for that matter — the JFO enables its user to directly sense chemicals in the air, as a warning signal, modifies the wearer’s face similar to the ‘Flehmen response.’ (This refers to the way in which cats, horses, donkeys, cattle and a whole slew of other animals curl their upper lip back on itself, open their mouths and lift their heads to the sky.)

The device isn’t designed to help you entertain the crowd with funny faces, but rather, to detect the levels of air pollution in your immediate vicinity at a far higher level of accuracy. In fact, Hertrich says that it is “an accelerated human evolution driven by means of existing technologies — with the goal to help us cope with extreme environments. The device utilizes off-shelf-technology to fill a gap in human evolution and provide us with a new sense.”

Embedded into the forehead of the prosthesis are chemical sensors, which are capable of collecting air data and detaching carbon dioxide levels. This data is then fed to a megaAVR based Arduino board, which deciphers whether CO2 levels are at a high enough level to be harmful. If so, motors activate gears that pull the wearer’s upper lip upwards, stimulating the aforementioned “Flehmen response” when a dangerous threshold is overridden.

“Can we accelerate human evolution by means of existing technologies to cope with extreme living environments? What if we extend our sensorial abilities to ‘smell’ airborne chemicals?” Hertrich asks. Whether or not this is the solution, the device blends both futuristic tech with inherent traits of animals to solve an all-too-real problem. Intrigued? Head over to the Maker’s official page to learn all about the sensorial project.

Mimo is making the baby nursery smarter

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IoT: Internet of Todders 

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If you are currently or have been the parent of a newborn, you know how hard it can be. Infants aren’t able to provide the kind of feedback you might desperately wish for after countless hours of coddling and sleepless nights. Unfortunately, babies can’t tell you exactly how they feel, what they want or why they are upset — other than crying, of course. Thankfully, the convergence of the Internet of Things and wearable tech is ushering in a new age of parenting.

Fortunately, a Boston-based startup Rest Devices has developed a smart baby onesie for parents. Founded by a group of former MIT students, Mimo monitors the respiration, skin temperature, body position, sleeping and activity levels of infants. Meaning, those with newborns will soon no longer have to worry about getting up and frequently checking on the baby throughout the night, instead only when necessary.

With comfort and safety in mind, the Mimo onesie is comprised of soft cotton with respiration sensors pressed to the top of the kimono, keeping anything from touching your baby’s skin. Data, such as breathing, skin temp and body position, is collected by the embedded “Turtle” sensor and immediately sent to a nearby station base, aptly dubbed “Lilypad.” This information and audio is relayed to the cloud in real-time, where it can be viewed on any mobile device and shared between parents and caregivers. The companion app is available for both Android and iOS.

By analyzing the data, Rest Devices is able to track and analyze the sleep schedule of an infant, as well as establish predictions on when a baby will fall asleep and more importantly, when it will wake up. This enables parents to be notified ahead of time so that they can already be prepared with milk or whatever else the child may need.

The company’s latest feature, a sleep training system, is currently in beta testing. As a parent, you know all to well that an infant’s slumber schedule can be rather fragmented and inconsistent. Company co-founder Dulcie Madden tells TechCrunch that they are in the process of developing a social component that will provide parents and nannies insights to other caregivers about their sleep strategies. What’s more, the Mimo is also capable of monitoring whether babies are sleeping properly, preventing the rare and tragic situation known as SIDS, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Why stop at a onesie? Rest Devices is on a mission to revolutionize the nursery and bring it into the Internet of Things era. In doing so, the startup is working on launching a smart bottle warmer, which will connect with the sleep prediction feature and automatically heat up milk as soon as a baby shows that it is getting restless.

“If babies are the future evolution of humanity, then Rest Devices may just be the next phase of the Internet of Things fever. Not just about flicking the lights on at predetermined intervals, this new generation of products has the opportunity to reshape how we think about family relationships, and through its convenience, ultimately improve what we most care about: our children,” TechCrunch’s Danny Crichton concludes.

Those parents wishing to learn more can head over to the startup’s official page here.

Uno is giving you all the info you need right on your wrist

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The average person takes their phone out, unlocks it, and checks messages over 150 times a day. Uno says that’s too much. 

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Seattle-based startup Uno believes that most of us take out our smartphones too many times per day, and has devised a way to solve that issue. Unlike a number of other wearables on the market today, the Noteband is focused primarily on notifications, a feature that caters to today’s on-the-go lifestyle.

The device, which is currently live on Indiegogo, displays messages from incoming calls, texts, emails, calendar reminders, as well as social feeds such as Twitter and Facebook. And for the gamers out there, the Noteband is even integrated with Xbox Live, Playstation Network and Steam. Meaning, you’ll no longer need to put down the controller to access a message, game alert or invitations.

Spritz, the speed-reading app, allows wearers to a notifications up to 80% faster at rates ranging from 250 to 1,000 words per minute. This eliminates any need for dual-hand scrolling, which enables users to get through that long email in a single click. When an alert is receives, the wristband vibrates and displays the message upon a tap of the finger. Swipe right to turn notices on, swipe left to get rid of them. It’s as easy as that!

Built around a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0 MCU, the Noteband is equipped with an OLED display, Bluetooth Low Energy, and a battery capable of lasting for days on a single charge. The device, which is compatible with both the Android and iOS operating systems, also packs a six-axis gyroscope and accelerometer to let users to keep track and achieve their fitness goals, while syncing with the Apple Health and Google Fit platforms. Interested in learning more? Hurry over to its official Indiegogo page, where the team has already well exceed its $50,000 goal.

LifeQ is tapping into the human sensor

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In today’s constantly-connected world, there is often a disconnect between raw data collection and sensor management. LifeQ has the answer.

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According to LifeQ, who made its debut back at CES 2015, the future of wearables may not actually be wearables but instead the data that they collect. The South African startup is looking to tap into the human sensor by combining two technologies to give people the ability to optimize and improve the condition of the body and live intelligently. This pair of technologies, continuous physiological monitoring and bio-mathematical modeling, provide insights around personal and population-wide health, making it possible to significantly improve decision making for anyone’s well-being.

We had the chance to catch up with LifeQ executive founder Riaan Conradie along with lead engineer Nicol Carstens to explore the ways in which its Atmel | SMART SAM4L ARM Cortex-M4-based solution will enable wearable device companies, application developers, data scientists and other experts to better monitor, understand and manage physiology, behavior and health. It’s important to note: LifeQ is not a wearables company.

At the moment, computational systems biology is a relatively new field, with only a small group of scientists studying and publishing on the topic. LifeQ’s multi-disciplinary team is pioneering this effort and has a vision of enabling every human being to really understand their own bodies and health, and make decisions based on highly personalized health records and insights.

LifeQ’s technology focuses on highlighting and improving six major verticals in one technological device for users to optimize their health and well-being including: fitness, nutrition, sleep and stress, medical, health and data mining. Given that deep analysis of data isn’t just a one-company task, it will require extensive collaborations to provide meaningful insights. Currently, the startup is partnering with a wide-range of brands to enable them to tap into the LifeQ model specific to their industry.

In fact, DailyDot reports that LifeQ ended CES 2015 with four partners who will include the company’s technology in their devices in the near future, and another 10 to 15 slated to be onboard by year-end. Among the early partners for implementation is First Alert with its Onelink smartwatch, which will take advantage of LifeQ’s ability to add functionality as it gathers more consumer data in its research cloud.

“Mobile health is following a very similar evolution to weather forecasting, going from simply going outside, through barometers to sophisticated computational forecasting,” explained Conradie. “Just like in weather forecasting, the traditional meteorological recording equipment is still needed, but it’s more about analyzing and using that data.”

Undoubtedly, LifeQ’s data pool will continue to expand as more consumers buy its partners’ wearable gadgets. As companies include these sensors into their next products, information will be sent to the cloud, and the resulting streams will be made available to app developers and device makers. Interested in learning more? Head over to the company’s official page here.

Samsung: Wearables will lead to a ‘new era of power dressing’

As 2014 comes to an end, Samsung has shared a set of predictions around wearable technology for year ahead. Following the release of several smartwatches over the past 12 months, the electronics company believes that wearables will make the crossover from the consumer market into the workplace.

(Source: Business Insider)

According to the Samsung, wearable technology will not only be the “2015 equivalent of the shoulder pads of the 1980s,” but today’s business leaders will rely heavily on connected devices to “stay always-on,” with the first wave of that change being smartwaches.

The manufacturer delved deep into business attitudes around wearables, which revealed that nearly half (47%) of users felt more intelligent, 61% felt more informed and efficient, and 37% believed that devices adorned to their bodies could potentially assist with career development.

These devices will not only make life easier for employers and their teams, but will improve productivity and streamline business processes. In fact, Samsung expects that:

1. Wearable technology will create a new era of power dressing for business leaders.
2. People will restructure their working lives around personal “Power Hours’’ – as technology reveals peak performance times.
3. Virtual reality technology and the innovative use of displays will lead to a new generation of digital shops, allowing retailers to overcome space constraints and high rent.
4. Automated home systems will move from ‘geek’ to ‘chic’ driven by a dramatically improved user experience.
5. Every child born in the next 12 months will learn coding as a core subject alongside numeracy and literacy.

Rewind: Oh. My. God. Becky, look at those wearables…

From GPS logging dog harnesses to MIDI drumming gloves, Adafruit’s Director of Wearable Electronics Becky Stern has unveiled some pretty wonderful wearable projects over the past couple of months. So much so that we’ve decided to pay homage to the LED-lovin’, gadget-glowin’ Maker by showcasing several of our favorites.

While the inherent versatility of Atmel’s MCUs have made our silicon a favorite amongst engineers for next-gen smart devices, evident by Becky’s latest designs, they have also increasingly emerged as the go-to choice for Makers creating DIY wearables.

Interior Purse Lights

Never fumble through your purse in the dark again, thanks to this fashionable yet practical innovation. The project makes use of Adafruit’s GEMMA Sequin Starter Pack (ATtiny85), conductive thread and conductive hook and loop tape.

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NeoPixel Punk Collar

Punk meets goth in this one-of-a-kind cybergothpunk creation — a leather collar studded with five color-changing NeoPixels. The project is powered by the ATtiny85 based GEMMA platform — which can also be substituted by a Trinket — and will surely make you the life of any party!

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Cyberpunk Spikes

As we continue to delve deep into cyberpunk territory, check out these slick 3D-printed spikes! Add these bright spikes — which uses a NeoPixel strip diffused by NinjaFlex 3D printing filament — to any ensemble. This project again employs a GEMMA microcontroller that animates the LEDs.

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NeoPixel Ring Bracelet

Sure, you can catch the attention of onlookers with the latest smartwatch or fashionable jewelry, but how about adorning your wrist with an eye-popping bracelet instead? Passerby won’t help but stare at the various light patterns displayed on this nifty DIY bracelet, which boasts set of four NeoPixel rings along with the tiny GEMMA.

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Tank Girl Goes Cyberpunk

Whether you’re a fan of the 1995 American sci-fi flick Tank Girl or not, you will surely appreciate Becky’s 3D-printed, LED-embedded Bandolier of Light. Similar to the aforementioned cyberpunk spikes, this unique getup is comprised of NinjaFlex filament, some NeoPixels, and of course, an tinyAVR driven GEMMA.

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Laser Dog Goggles

What would a bright night on the town be without an appropriate getup of man’s best companion. Here, Becky transformed once-ordinary Doggles into a paw-some pair of cyberpunk-style glasses with a rotating laser. Using a Trinket 3v MCU (ATtiny85), a set of clear dog goggles and a laser diode as the center of the device, this invention will surely be a hit on the scene.

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Light-Activated Pixel Heart

Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve, or in this case, shirt. The embedded GEMMA and light dependent resistor detect when a wearer’s NeoPixel heart is uncovered, and just like that, triggers the heart light on.

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Superhero Power Plant

If there’s one thing you should know when it comes to Makers and DIY wearables, it’s that we love Iron Man! Incorporate a Tony Stark-inspired arc reactor into your next Comic Con cosplay costume with an uber-small GEMMA, laser cut acrylic frame, and NeoPixels to round out the handheld power plant.

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Firewalker LED Sneakers

Think of it as a DIY version of those old-school LA Lights you wore as kids, only cooler. And, much brighter. Cheaper, too! This project — a collaboration between Becky and the creative Phillip Burgess — shows just how easy it is to mod a pair of high-tops with a NeoPixel strip and FLORA (ATmega32u4 MCU). A velostat step sensor inside each shoe activate a light animation with every step taken in these new DIY kicks.

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LED Sparkle Skirt

Add a simple sparkle to your skirt or other piece of attire using a [megaAVR based] FLORA controller and accelerometer, conductive thread, and RGB NeoPixels.

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Plushy Game Controller

Throw pillows? That’s boring. An oversize plush pillow that functions as a game controller? Now we’re talking! This idea was brought to life with just some conductive fabric, a FLORA board, and a capacitive touch sensing circuit to round out the electronics.

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Wearable GPS Tracker

Make a wearable GPS tracker for you, or even your furry friend. Use an ATmega32U4 powered FLORA main board and GPS to log your distance. Simply integrate it into a backpack, dog harness, or whatever you want to track for that matter.

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Pac-Man Animated Pixel Suspenders

This set of “blinken-braces” boasts 30 NeoPixels, each of which are sewn to these suspenders and controlled by a FLORA board running a dazzling Pac-Man inspired animation.

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MIDI Drum Glove

Look like Michael, keep the beat like Iggy. Play your favorite synths by finger drumming! Stitch up four piezos into a glove and use a FLORA to transmit signals to your favorite music-making software.

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GPS Jacket

Built around FLORA, this slick, megaAVR powered GPS Jacket reacts to your whereabouts with color-changing, pulsing LED lights around the collar.

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FLORA NeoGeo Watch

Based on the wearable FLORA platform and an accompanying GPS module, the NeoGeo Watch can be tastefully paired with Adafruit’s futuristic goggles and GPS Jacket for a full cyberpunk/steampunk wardrobe.

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Zipper Switch

Zippin’ awesome! In one of her latest projects, Becky explores yet another innovative way of turning otherwise relatively dull clothing into more fun, interactive attire. Take zippers, for instance. Here, the super talented Maker transformed them into a momentary switch for activating lights, sounds, and more using stainless steel conductive thread. As the zipper pull travels along the teeth, two pads of conductive thread are bridged, momentarily creating an electrical connection. This connection can be sensed by an Atmel based MCU, such as the FLORA or GEMMA, with an activated internal pull-up resistor.

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If you’re feeling inspired to make your own project using Adafruit’s FLORA, GEMMA and Trinket wearable electronics platform, explore everything there is to know here.

Rewind: 25 wow-worthy wearables from 2014

As we turn the page on 2014, we’re taking a quick look back at some of our favorite wearables from the last 12 months. While analysts predict the market to experience an uptick heading into 2015, we can only wait and see what new products emerge!

Moto 360

In what may have been the most highly-anticipated Android Wear smartwatch to date, the Moto 360 is equipped with a bold round face, a MXT112S powered capacitive touch display, a heart rate monitor, an ambient light sensor, and is now being sold in both metal and leather models.

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TomTom Runner

The popular GPS sports watch is equipped with a built-in heart rate monitor, a large monochrome LCD display and one-button control. In addition, the Atmel | SMART ATSAM4S8C based TomTom Runner is embedded with an accelerometer and sensors allowing it to work both outdoors, indoors and even on a treadmill, thus providing providing a user with the kind of data they’d expect to find on most sports watches — such as distance, pace, stride length, calories burned and lap times all in real-time.

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Narrative Clip

The future, for anyone who wants to tell their own story, has never looked brighter. That is because of the Atmel | SMART SAM9G25 powered Narrative Clip — a tiny, automatic 5-megapixel camera paired with an app that offers users access to a “photographic memory” which is both searchable and shareable. Clip it onto your shirt and let it snap away, recording all your daily activities in 30-second increments. Kind of like a GoPro but less obtrusive, always on, and of course, interconnected.

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GLOW MOTION

GLOW MOTION has its sights set on revolutionizing the concert experience with their latest LED wristbands. Capable of being programmed with a range of light patterns emitting any of 16 million colors, the wearable device is enabling fans to become integrally involved in events. The devices not only receive signals from a centralized control module, but making this idea even ‘brighter’ is the fact that the wristbands can communicate with one another during a show.

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DrumPants

Ever catch yourself drumming on your thighs? Your table? Your desk? Your steering wheel? Now, starting a one-man band is as simple as wearing this musical kit. DrumPants, dubbed by its creators as “the world’s industrial quality wearable musical instrument,” transforms your outfit into a full ensemble with 100+ built-in high-quality sounds. Its control box — which is powered by an Atmel | SMART ARM Cortex-M3-based MCU — features an ultra-low latency Bluetooth 4.0 chip, a built-in sound engine for 1/8-inch headphone jack, 128 instrument sample banks and a Micro-USB for connection to a laptop or PC.

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Smart Hoodie

In an attempt to demonstrate that wearables don’t necessarily need to be confined to the wrist or face, two students at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) explored innovative ways fabric could be used with electronics. Using an [Atmel based] Arduino and an Arduino GSM shield, the pair designed what they call the “Smart Hoodie,” a hooded sweatshirt that can respond to various gestures — touching the hood, touching a sleeve and rolling up a sleeve, each of which send a different text message to a pre-programmed contact.

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TZOA

While a majority of the wearable space has been focused on tracking what’s inside our bodies such as activity and stress levels, a new kind of device is emerging, one in which monitors what’s going on outside of us — specifically in our environment. Unlike others on the market today, similar to the recently-unveiled AirBeam handset, TZOA is a gadget that measures air pollution and UV exposure in one’s immediate environment using advanced sensor technology.

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BB.Suit

Dutch designer Borre Akkersdijk recently launched a unique form of 3D-printed garments earlier this year: a onesie capable of turning its wearer into a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. The first version of the suit — which made its debut back at SXSW — featured electrical threads woven into its fabric along with GPS and a musical library. A wearer’s location was displayed on Google Maps using the suit’s built-in GPS. Meanwhile, as a demo for the show’s music festival, the Maker collaborated with the online platform 22tracks to enable a wearer to upload songs. When musicians around the event located the BB.Suit, they had the ability to upload the tunes directly onto the suit. Talk about a ‘walkman!’

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Sensory Fiction

They say stories can come to life, and well, one group of MIT students have taken that idiom to an entirely new level. The team of Makers has recently created a wearable book that uses networked sensors and actuators to create a sort of cyberpunk-like Neverending Story, blurring the line between the bodies of a reader and protagonist. The current prototype is comprised of a vest that plugs into a computerized copy of Tiptree’s novella. The vest — controlled by an [Atmel based] Arduino board — swells, contracts, vibrates, heats up or cools down as the pages of the book are turned. 150 programmable LEDs are used to create ambient light based on changing setting and mood, the book/wearable support a number of outputs, including sound, a personal heating device to change skin temperature, vibration to influence heart rate, and a compression system to convey tightness or loosening through pressurized airbags.

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Self-Lacing Shoes

Aside from a time-travelling DeLorean DMC-12 and hoverboard, there is one other notable futuristic design from Back To The Future II that has left the world eagerly awaiting its inception: self-tying laces. While Nike has recently announced that it will be debuting these automated kicks in 2015, one Maker decided to take it upon himself to equip a pair of Air Mag sneakers with an Arduino Pro Mini (ATmega168) along with several other electronic components.

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Hashtag Gloves

If you’re like our team, then you are huge fans of late-night television. From the days of Johnny Carson to Jay Leno to Jimmy Fallon, we love it all — which is why this recent project from a group of Olin College students certainly caught our attention. Inspired by The Tonight Show skit featuring Justin Timberlake, the Makers devised a new invention: Hashtag Gloves. Rather than having to pull out their smartphone and access its mobile app, Twitter users can simply tap their fingers twice using the “hashtag” symbol and speak loudly.

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Sonar-Asssisted Device

Led by Wake Forest University professors William Conner and Paul Pauca, a group of students created an Arduino LilyPad (ATmega168V) powered wrist-worn device, aptly named HELP (the Human Echo Location Partner), that would help those who are blind get around, serving as a supplement to commonplace aids like canes or guide dogs. Based on the e-textile Arduino platform, the wearable device runs JAVA-like code, and features sonar distance sensors responsible for measuring the distance of objects and relaying this data to two smartphone vibrating motors. The frequency of vibrations is proportional to the distance from the detected object. In other words, the closer the detected object, the faster the motors vibrate.

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x.pose

Designers Xuedi Chen and Pedro G. C. Oliveira recently debuted x.pose, a wearable data-driven sculpture that changes opacity to expose a person’s skin as a real-time reflection of outgoing data. Using an [Atmel based] Arduino and Bluetooth, the app communicates with a layer of reactive displays that reflect the volume of information generated by the wearer.

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ChronodeVFD

John De Cristofaro grabbed the attention of countless Makers when we shared his Steampunk-inspired wristwatch powered by an ATMega88 microcontroller (MCU) earlier this year. At the core of the wearable device lies an ATMega88 MCU, while the real-time clock is a Maxim DS3231. The VFD display is driven by a Maxim MAX6920 — a 12-bit shift register with high-voltage (up to 76V) outputs. In addition, the circuit itself is powered from three voltage rails, and there a few onboard sensors — one analog and two digital.

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Nixie

If your selfies weren’t awesome enough, you’re in luck. A team of Makers have set out to take photography to whole new heights… literally. Sure, smart watches bring smartphone features to wearers’ wrists, but can it fly freely and take video as it soars through the air? Stanford University researcher Christoph Kohstall, along with a team of engineers and designers, has formed a dream team to develop the Nixie. This wrist-mounded quadcopter hybrid just may hold the future of wearables, all while weighing less than a pound.

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Tattoo Music Machine

Moscow-based artist Dmitry Morozov — commonly referred to as ::vtol:: — has created a unique sound controller to read musical scores implanted in tattoos. The scanning instrument is comprised of a metal railing, hand controllers and parallel black line sensors that move along the arm using a stepper motor. In addition, it is equipped with a Nintendo Wii remote control and an Open Sound Control to enhance the sound possibilities. A stepper motor guides the device along the inked lines, while the length of each bar coincides with the duration of an emitted sound. On the hardware side, key features of the musical creation include an Arduino Nano (ATmega328), a Nord Modular G2, a Symbolic Sound Kyma X, and a six-channel PVC pipe sound system.

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Knitgadget

Royal College of Art student Yen Chen Chang recently debuted the Knitgadget, a glove that allows users to control various devices, musical or otherwise. The wearable device is comprised of conductive yarn that’s 80% polyester and 20% stainless steel (and 100% pure awesomeness). Chang knit and crocheted a series of objects that control devices by rubbing, pulling and stroking. When manipulated, the overlap of the metal fiber causes the textile to change conductivity which is then measured by an [Atmel powered] Arduino and communicated to the gadgets.

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Vega Edge

Made of laser-cut leather, the Edge is a wearable light that snaps securely onto your clothing with the help of four strong neodymium magnets. You can wear it discreetly by day or brightly at night with your winter coat, cardigan, hood, scarf, handbag, collar, pocket, belt, or wherever you’d like a touch of light. According to project designer Angella Mackey, the Edge can also be worn for added visibility at night while cycling, jogging or walking. Indeed, traditional bike lights are often forgotten on the bike frame, leaving them vulnerable to theft. The Edge will stay with you, so you’re always prepared and visible.

 Perhaps most importantly, says Mackey, the Edge is designed to look good even when the lights are off.

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Robotic Dress

A collaboration between 360 Fashion Network CEO Anina Net, Polish couture designer Michal Starost and IT architect Bruce Bateman has led to world’s first robotic dress powered by Atmel MCUs. The dress made its catwalk debut at the “When Technology Meets Fashion” event held during Beijing Design Week. In addition, the robotic garment features 6 servo-controlled support arms comprised of fiberglass reinforced with aluminum, custom software and a high-powered battery pack. In what sounds like something out of Hunger Games, the arms lift in sync to convert the dress from a day dress to an evening gown.

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Personal Space Dress

Maker Kathleen McDermott recently debuted the “Personal Space Dress,” an article of clothing that literally expands a wearer’s personal buffer zone. The dress is the second in a series of projects dubbed Urban Armor, which consists of playful, Arduino-powered pieces that help women assert control over their personal and public space. In the case of the Personal Space Dress, a pair of proximity sensors and a plastic armature allow the garment’s hemline to expand outward when a fellow individual comes too close to the wearer.

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Smart Eyelashes

Building upon her existing ‘Beauty Technology’ prototypes, Katia Vega developed a new smart eyelash system, which transformed basic eye and facial movements into programmable actions. Think Google Glass, just without the Glass. The lashes are chemically metallized to mimic a natural, black color, and are capable of amplifying emotions that the wearer wants to communicate by presenting noticeable, exaggerated visual compositions. Impressively, Vega was able to levitate a small drone simply by blinking at it.

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3DTouch

A pair of students at the University of Wyoming have developed 3DTouch, an intelligent device that enables wearers to interact three-dimensionally with their computers. Dating back to the 1960s, Doug Engelbert’s mouse has dominated the way in which humans have communicated with their PCs. Though 3DTouch has an optical flow sensor that measures movement against a two-dimensional surface similar to its ancestral device, the smart thimble will now let a wearer control an onscreen mouse with a wave, tap or poke of a finger. Even cooler? Having more than one 3DTouch on different fingers facilitates multi-touch interaction. Connected to an Arduino Uno (ATmega328) controller, the input device is equipped with a 3D accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope. This allows the data from each sensor to be compared and combined to produce a far more precise estimate of orientation than a single measurement alone.

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Mel Li’s Exoskeleton

Cyberpunk films and novels are often set in post-industrial dystopias characterized by extraordinary cultural ferment and the use of technology in ways never anticipated by its original creators. As William Gibson noted in Burning Chrome, “The street finds its own uses for things.” Although Gibson wrote those words way back in 1981, they more than aptly describe the cyberpunk build designed by Maker Mel Li, Ph.D that was showcased at this year’s Maker Faire Bay Area. The rather impressive costume includes color changing LEDs on the spine and front that are controlled by Arduino boards with both AVR and Atmel | SMART MCUs and on-board RGB controllers (respectively) – powered by 16 AA batteries, 1 LiPo rechargeable battery, two 2032 coin cells and one 9-volt battery.

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Embedded Ballet Shoes

Designed by Lesia Trubat, Electronic Traces (E-Traces for short) are a pair of embedded pointé shoes which allow ballerinas to recreate their movements into visual sensations using an accompanying mobile app. Equipped with LilyPad Arduino boards (ATmega168V), E-Trace records the pressure and motion of a ballet dancer’s feet and transmits the signals to an electronic device. The application enables the wearer to trace the data graphically, viewing the movements made in video form, extracting images and even printing them for later use. This can certainly come in handy for those ballerinas seeking to improve their choreography and hone their skills.

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Skin Buttons

Developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s Future Interfaces Group, Skin Buttons are touch-sensitive projected icons made on a user’s skin. The prototype smartwatch contains four fixed-icon laser projectors along with accompanying infrared proximity sensors. These are connected to an ATmega328P based Femtoduino board, which communicates over USB with a host computer. Additionally, a 1.5-inch TFT LCD display is driven from a host computer. While the team used an external computer for prototyping, it appears that a commercial model would be self-contained.

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What a year it’s been! As we reflect back on 2014, we can’t help but eagerly await CES 2015 — and the latest wearable tech that’ll surely ensue!

Report: 30% of smart wearables will be inconspicuous by 2017

As previously reported on Bits & Pieces, we can expect to see wearable technology become less invasive over the next couple of years. Aside from an emergence in smart clothing and e-textiles, a new study from Gartner has revealed that the wearables market will continue to expand and evolve with 30% of the devices to become completely unobtrusive to the eye by 2017.

“Already, there are some interesting developments at the prototype stage that could pave the way for consumer wearables to blend seamlessly into their surroundings,” explained Annette Zimmermann, Gartner Research Director. “Smart contact lenses are one type in development. Another interesting wearable that is emerging is smart jewelry. There are around a dozen crowdfunded projects competing right now in this area, with sensors built into jewelry for communication alerts and emergency alarms. Obtrusive wearables already on the market, like smart glasses, are likely to develop new designs that disguise their technological components completely.”

Gartner went on to share several other predictions around the consumer devices market, including:

• By 2018, more than 25 million head-mounted displays (HMDs) will have been sold as immersive devices and virtual worlds will have transitioned from the fringe to the mainstream.
• Interest in HMD devices — which power virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and other smart glass apps — will continue to rise. So much so that, by 2018, the technology behind them will be found throughout both consumer and business scenarios.
• More stylish, consumer-grade video eyeglasses will result in explosive growth for HMDs — driving device adoption when paired with VR and AR content.
• By 2016, biometric sensors will be featured in 40% of smartphones shipped to end users.
• Fingerprint scanning will be the primary biometric feature introduced by most vendors, given its intuitive and unobtrusive usage.
• Other biometrics, ranging from facial and iris to voice and palm vein authentication, will also surface yet will remain relatively niche.
• Through 2017, one-third of consumers in emerging markets will have never owned a Windows device.
• In mature markets, PC penetration is still relatively high with more than 90% of consumers currently using a Windows PC.
• The rise in smartphones and their subsequent drop in price will lead some users to purchase their first smartphone for under $50.

Interested in learning more? You can read the entire press release and access the report here.

Report: 2015 is expected to be a breakout year for wearables

We’re just weeks away from a breakout year for wearables, new research from Forrester has revealed.

“In 2015, wearables will hit mass market,” Forrester’s JP Gownder writes in the company’s most recent blog post. “With Apple’s much-anticipated Apple Watch slated for release early next year, the already hype-heavy conversation will reach new heights.”

The research firm joins other tech industry analysts in proclaiming 2015 as the pivotal year for wearable technology. If you recall, back in October, Gartner named the wearable space among the top strategic trends IT managers will have to contend with next year, along with big data and the burgeoning Internet of Things.

In its report, entitled “Five Urgent Truths About The Future Of Wearables That Every Leader Should Know,” Forrester expects the number of people using a wearable computer will triple in 2015, led by the highly-anticipated arrival of Apple Watch that is projected to draw 10 million users next year.

The study, which examined thousands of consumers in both U.S. and Europe, suggests more Americans (45%) can see themselves donning wearables than their European counterparts (32%).

“While wearables have indeed suffered from a hype bubble, demand for them is real. Yes, Nike’s walking away from Fuel Band, but Apple, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, and Salesforce.com all are making major commitments to the market.”

As to where consumers will likely adorn their bodies with wearable computers, many cite their wrists, clothes, shoes, ears and eyes as key areas. The report notes that the wrist appeals to over a third (42%) of consumers in both the U.S and Europe — even before the arrival of Apple’s latest device. This compared to 28% of adults last year. Gartner believes this may be a result of companies Fitbit, Samsung, Pebble, Jawbone and others that have begun educating the market about wrist-based wearables.

Meanwhile, smart garments — wearables embedded in, or clipped onto, clothing and shoes — show under-appreciated interest. In fact, fellow research firm Gartner believes the emergence of less invasive devices, particularly e-textiles will potentially disrupt the wearables space. So much so that embedded attire shipments will rise from a mere 0.1 million units in 2014 to 26 million units in 2016.

“Ralph Lauren debuted its Polo Tech smart shirt with OMSignal’s technology at the US Open, while Ducere’s Lechal uses haptic feedback to create screen-free GPS in smart shoes,” Gownder exemplifies.

Furthermore, smart earbuds, headphones and smart glasses are expected to rise in popularity. 43% of online U.S. adults have shared that they might be interested in intelligent eyewear, i.e. Google Glass, “if the price were right.”

The report also goes on to show that 10% of U.S. online adults say they’ve already used a wearable device, like a fitness tracker. However, it appears that figure will surely to rise, as nearly half (45%) of these adult consumers say they agree with the statement, “I am intrigued by the prospect of getting a wearable device.”

“And, while strong consumer interest exists for wearable devices, a bigger driver of demand is coming from businesses looking to supply employees with all types of new body gadgetry,” Reuters reports.

Take for instance, a recent Kronos and Harris poll found that 73% of workers believe that wearable technology can enhance their work environment and productivity in some way. Meanwhile, over two-thirds (68%) of business decision-makers polled by Forrester cited developing a wearables strategy for their business was now a priority.

“The wearable market will take off as brands, retailers, sports stadiums, healthcare companies, and others develop new business models to take advantage of wearables,” Gowdner urges.

Throughout the upcoming watershed year, we can expect to see the emergence of wearables to monitor the safety field workers, location-aware smartwatches to assist managers assign shift workers in real-time and video, as well as photo devices that augment the human insights of technical inspectors.

The research firm also anticipates that wearable devices will become increasingly collaborating, demonstrating how Thalmic Labs’ Myo gesture-controller armband could complement Google Glass, for example.

Interested in learning more? Gain deeper insight into each of the five urgent truths by downloading Forrester’s official report here.

 

Sole Searching is taking the pedestrian experience a step further

Developed by a group of UC-Berkeley students for their Critical Making course, Sole Searching is a shoe that reacts to the invisible space through which we all move.

Powered by an Arduino Micro (ATmega32U4), the next-gen sneaker acts as a wireless detector, picking up the signals that pass through the “hertzian” layer of our environment, while displaying the names of nearby devices.

In what would appear to be something out of a sci-fi flick, the DIY wearable visualizes a multitude of radio waves that surround us, all while keeping us connected to our friends, jobs, and the world at large. The information broadcasted across these waves is typically so undetectable that we often times forget that it even exists in the public domain.

The project — which was recently featured on Hackster.io — brings the “invisible” front and center through the use of an LCD screen embedded in the shoe, revealing information specific to that time and place. After all, radio waves are present just about everywhere we go. This ATmega32U4 based concept is a passive yet playful way to interact with the layer of space

Interested? Head on over to the Hackster.io’s step-by-step breakdown and get started on a whole new pedestrian experience.