Making Mobilities

Pop-Up Prototype Launch

Date: Friday 14^th Dec
Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Address: Woolmark Resource Centre, Unit 3305, 33/F, AIA Kowloon Tower, Landmark East, 100 How Ming Street, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong.

About

Image Credit: Maja Sieczko

Come and join a group of Australian artists and designers at the end of a three week journey across China, working with maker spaces and industry partners to design speculative and critical Wearable prototypes that are making our future mobile. Prototype presentations followed by drinks and nibbles (free admission).

Wearable technology is an exponentially growing sector. Markets are rapidly adapting and transitioning from portable (mobile phones, tablets) to wearable (sensor and actuator) devices. Wearables that live on, near or in our bodies give rise to a previously unimagined level of data about users and the environment. We live within the Internet of Things and Smart Cities are becoming reality.

No longer are we tethered to our tech through power cables, wearable technology enables freedom of movement. Technology is embedded in our bodies and the very fabric of clothes, augmenting our bodies, enabling mobility. The mobilities paradigm is reframing our future.

The Prototypes

SOLAR

SOLAR is a solar powered jacket, built not only for the flexible materials of today’s clothing but for the flexible needs of tomorrows future. By energizing our clothing, we can energize ourselves, pushing ourselves to be more mobile and able to adapt to the elements around us. We believe a long-distance hiking jacket is the best method by which to demonstrate the flourishing relationship of technology and fashion and it’s benefits to humanity. This design can target both hiking enthusiasts and be inviting enough to involve even those outside that community through a human and natural minimalist design.
Visit Solar Instructables Page

STRYDE

STRYDE gives amateur and intermediate runners the same insights available to professional athletes with low-cost, aesthetic and convenient wearables. Working on a pair of tights incorporating sensors to analyse landing and movement, as well as an auditory device to help runners maintain a consistent pace. The compression running tights communicate sensor readings back to a PC or mobile where a model for comparison can be used to provide feedback about what aspects of the runner’s stride may be improved. Ultimately these wearables aim to help mobile individuals improve performance, prevent injury and better understand their fitness activities.
Visit Stryde Instructables Page

UVU

UVU (ultra violet you) aims to promote awareness about skin damage from solar rays and ultra violet radiation within the Australian context. The Australian summer on average has one of the highest UV indexes, regularly reaching an intensity of 9.5, that can cause permeant damage to skin cells within 15 minutes. UVU aims to tackle this through focusing on the education surrounding ultra violet radiation and skin cancer. The initial concept is the UVU snap band, this band will sense the current UV level and the wearers exposure and convey this to the user. This is in the aim of highlighting the time it takes for damage to be caused, to encourage sun safety practice and focus on ingraining habitual habits.
Visit UVU Instructables Page

SHENSUO

SHENSUO is an adaptive skirt which aids in mobility via on board temperature regulation. Measuring via humidity and temperature sensors the Shensuo can find the user’s desired comfortability range and adjust itself to help to moderate insulation. The pleated skirt is composed of two elements, one opaque and one sheer panel. Once triggered the motors will adjust the angle of the pleated panels to expose the sheer side of the pleated (when adjusting to cool) and the opaque element (when adjusting to warmth). Day to night adaptive design also aids in aesthetic transition allowing for social mobility. The wearable also addresses day to night aesthetic requirements, adaptive to the rapid changing environment and social requirements of cosmopolitan target market – the wearable may use a time sensor to adapt to evening wear (e.g. past 7pm) or a manual plate trigger. This is addressed by an automated cinching function which draws the pleats inward to create a more streamlined fitted evening dress aesthetic.
Visit Shensuo Instructables Page