I'm studying product design and for my final year project i'm developing a wearable electronic device that will hopefully include some Arduino controllers (i'm still learning ya see).
The only problem is i cant decide on what functionality to give the device. So for my research, I wanted to ask the forum members what they would like to see in a wearable device, whether it be jacket, top, sports specific etc etc.
I'm not looking to steal an idea, just want a firm base on what the population wants.
How about a "mood jacket", senses your mood and changes color. Or maybe mood, body temperature, heart rate, pitch of voice.
And double as a portable message jacket, scroll messages up one sleeve, across the back, down the other sleeve.
To be honest i wanted to stay away from anything remotely novelty based and concentrate on user needs. I'd like to find out what people really need on an everyday basis and incorporate it almost fluidly into their everyday life, if that makes sense.
a belt with an LCD display as buckle - shows my diameter
a distance detector - eyes in the back of my head
breakdance analyzer - all kind of accelerator detectors that measure timing of the moves -
automatic sleeve roller
the automatic shoeslaces of back to the future
a pair of glasses with adaptive color - electronic sunglasses (left and right may differ) - LCD screen as glasses (possible)
shoes with step counters
shoes with an build in weight detector
an electronic "open fly" detector
a dress that can zip itself "open and close" - no need to call someone
A coat that can whistle if you search for it
A coat with light in the sleeves to light up what your hands are doing
An RFID in your wallet and a RFID reader nearby, if your wallet gets stolen an alarm sounds immediately
A reminder tool that shows a text to remember if certain GPS coordinates are reached.
multicolor leds in the clothes that show the environment temperature (blue = cold green yellow orange red = hot)
XBEE that searches for people with same interests in the neighbourhood
(broadcast keywords and if they match answer them => show them on a LCD or buzzer
Yesterday in Dutch paper - Philips showed a UV-emitting blanket for babies that are born too early (bilirubine defiency?)
something like - Abby on the bili blanket - YouTube -
It seems there are alot of ideas i havent thought of, just was waiting for something to kickstart the thought process and hopefully something in that list does the trick!!
If you have any suggestions of what you would like to see in an everyday situation in apparel then throw them at me too but thank you again!
Perhaps something that incorporates realtime clock and has an led watch built into the left sleeve, for like in the winter when you are wearing long sleeves and say its snowing and you don't want to roll up your sleeve to read your watch, or are wearing gloves and don't want to take them off to roll down the sleeve,
it could have accelerometer, gyroscope functions to tell if you have your arm horizontal an increase brightness for easier reading, then dimmer when its veritical and less distracting
something waterproof and still flexible, maybe individual leds sowed in to show time
depending how small you get it maybe make the whole thing into a semiflexible band that can slip over a regular sleeve, maybe even rechargeable thru a micro usb in the side
That'd make more sense so that the clothe can be washed then the band put back on
it'd be really cool if it had a n associated program on the computer that can set the time automatically while its charging, and maybe be able to set alarms that set off a piezo
this stuff seems approachable and not too expensive, hardest part probably the flexible waterresistant part
