E-Clothing coming to The New Dowse
A Christchurch hardware engineer cum e-clothing designer will be exhibiting one of her first forays into computerised clothing at TheNewDowse.
The sound shirt, which measures noise and converts it into light will be on display from April 30th as part of the Pulse! programme. As the noise level increases, a new light panel on the shirt is activated.
The designer, Marilyn Lim, was propelled into her e-clothing career after the director of the research group she works for HitLab, was invited to be a judge for the 2006 Techno Fashion Show.
Swapping interactive screens with interactive fashion, Lim decided to take on the brave new world of smart clothing by creating a garment that responded to sound.
At that show, she fitted out the Techno Fashion Show presenter in her first creation - a multi-coloured flashing vest.
She says that the nascent e-clothing industry has been taking big steps in recent years with players like Nike, Philips, IBM and Levi developing all sorts of gear from musical jackets to heart-beat monitoring vests.
“My favourite is this shirt that sends information via blue-tooth. You hug yourself and then send that embrace to somebody else wearing a hug shirt. It simulates the feeling of a hug,” she says.