What if clothing was not just for decoration but it somewhat had a function embedded in it that gave it another characteristic? This project’s aim is to make apparel that can perform functions that help the person who wears it.
Power Me Up is a jacket that helps its user communicate with others in the dark. The back of the jacket has a plastic cover with a stabilizer to hold a sheet of paper cut into a pattern inside the cover. A magnet can activate a light at the back. While the light is off, no one will be able to see the paper. When the light is turned on, the pattern is visible to everyone except the user. This jacket could be used in different ways, such as a warning signal while biking at night and a light jacket for a party.
Imagine you are walking down a hallway, and a stranger approaches you. A noise from the bag would grab the attention of the other person, leading them to start a conversation. This idea came from my introverted friend who tried hard to initiate conversation with others but always failed. However, this “talking” bag acted as an icebreaker to force others to talk to him without him speaking first. This bag helps him greet people, eventually resulting in a conversation.
This idea came from a concert that I attended where I sat really close to the staff area and got a chance to take a look at how they operated the stage’s technology. I found out that most of the lighting except the spotlights are precoded with a pattern that follows the specific rhythm of each song. As lighting and projection are the most significant factors that enhance the atmosphere of the whole concert, it would be interesting if the performers could actually manipulate the lighting and projection.
The aim of Ping is to create a more interactive way of performing music. During a concert, the performers are usually intoxicated by their musical world with some of them moving their bodies to the beat. The idea is to create a musical suit in which the performers can just “push or punch” the garments to play music and interact with projections of art.
I got this idea from myself. Despite being an extroverted person, I easily get nervous. Therefore, I wanted to make a suit that reflected my mood—turning my nervousness into an interesting light show.
The garment has a pulse sensor that is set to different heartbeat rates, and according to the user’s heartbeats pattern, the colour of the RGB LED will change from a cold blue to a harsh purple. If the heartbeat is static, the colour will change be moderate, but if the heart rate is dramatic, the colour will dramatically changing in a series from blue to purple.
Normal
Kind of normal
Getting intense
Super nervous