WearTec

I’ve reported previously about electrical components being sewn into clothes or other wearable technology devices, such as remote controls for Mp3 players in a jacket. Some of these components were machine washable while others had to be removed before washing the garment. Now however, a company called Sauquoit Industries has introduced a new technology that allows the etch electronic circuits and components directly onto fabric. They call this technology CircuiteX™, which is flexible and lighter than the traditional printed circuit boards.

“[…] The CircuiteX fabric, a silver metalized fabric with a fine, tightly woven nylon base, offers the highest level of electrical conductivity. […] The fabrics, which also may be knitted and also may contain spandex, can be processed on traditional textile machinery.”

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It’s a sad and cruel world we live in and the Child Gas Hood device sold at Spycatcher is solid proof. Listed in the nuclear, chemical, biological protection section of their shop, the Child Gas Hood is supposed to ‘protect the head and the respiratory system’.
Spycatcher doesn’t provide any further information regarding the level type of protection Child Gas Hood provides, so I’m not quite sure how much of a ‘toy’ this hood really is.

At the bargain price of 395 pounds, you’d want it to do a bit more than protecting your child from passive smokers or ‘mean biological bowl gas attacks’ aka farts.

[via Medgadget]

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The following news have reached me via a press release:
“The United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued a Notice of Allowance to award-winning inventor Shelley Harrison in the case of a patent application filed on a new way to tell time. The new time display method uses colors instead of an hour hand or hour digit. Products using the new way to tell time are expected to be marketed under the brand name TWELV(TM)(http://www.twelv.com).

TWELV time relies upon a series of twelve colors, each of which is uniquely assigned to an hour of the day. A color is displayed during the hour to which the color is assigned. Thus, for instance, during the six o’clock hour, the color green is displayed. Minutes are still indicated by numerical digits, which are set against a background that is the color corresponding to the given hour.

The TWELV time-telling system allows a number of advantages. For instance, holding display size constant, two digits can be displayed at a much larger size than can four digits. Meanwhile, colors can be correctly identified at much longer distances than can individual characters or clock hands. Thus, the new time-telling system offers a readability over greater distances than conventional time display methods allow. […]”

I sometimes shake my head at these type of ‘inventions’. What about the color blind? What about reading the display in bright daylight where you can’t see the colors of an LCD properly? Sure this new ’system’ might have its advantages and could have some impact on the displays used in wearable technology, but do we really need to start learning colors and their corresponding numbers? On the other hand, who am I to judge? Introduce it to the market and see whether they’ll embrace it or not.

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You can use it to listen to your favourite music. Then Nike and Apple announced that the iPod nano will become your personal workout trainer.
And now I’ve found this wearable gadget that makes the iPod nano hold up your pants: the TuneBuckle Nano Belt. The TuneBuckle Belt is, as the name suggests, a belt with a belt buckle made from aluminum that is designed to hold and protect your ipod. Very stylish, quality made in the US of A.
And best of all it finally gives you an excuse to fumble around in proximity of your groin area.

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