4. 4
IBM
Interactive
Experience
1.Building the Future Spacesuit
2.Design Fiction: Ear Hacking
3.Smart Skin Circuits
4.Parson’s Between Spaces
5.Adaptive Fashion - Smart Garments
4
five things you should
experience this week
DepAdmin at NASA - Dava Newman
The BioSuit is a “second-skin” spacesuit that would allow for greater degrees of freedom in movement.
Photo Credit: Professor Dava Newman: Inventor, Science Engineering; Guillermo Trotti, A.I.A., Trotti and Associates, Inc. (Cambridge, MA): Design; Dainese (Vincenca, Italy): Fabrication; Douglas Sonders: Photography
http://appel.nasa.gov/2012/01/11/building-the-future-spacesuit/
The BioSuit is based on the idea that there is another way to apply the necessary pressure to an astronaut’s body. In theory at least, a form-fitting suit that presses directly on the skin can accomplish the job. What is needed is an elastic fabric and a structure that can provide about one-third of sea-level atmospheric pressure, or 4.3 psi (approximately the pressure at the top of Mt. Everest). The skintight suit would allow for a degree of mobility impossible in a gas-filled suit. It also would be potentially safer. While an abrasion or micrometeor puncture in a traditional suit would threaten sudden decompression puncturing the balloon and causing a major emergency and immediate termination of the EVA—a small breach in the BioSuit could be readily repaired with a kind of high-tech Ace bandage to cover a small tear.
The mechanical counter-pressure spacesuit is not a new idea. Physiologist Dr. Paul Webb introduced the concept in the late sixties and developed a prototype in the early seventies. It was a great idea that came before its time, in my opinion; advanced materials that could exert the necessary pressure on the skin were not available then. In addition, the wearer needed help getting Webb’s prototype suit on and off (as do astronauts donning and doffing existing spacesuits), which results in expensive downtime for astronauts. A really practical BioSuit would be one the wearer could don and doff herself in, say, less than ten minutes.
In the late nineties, colleagues and I revived Webb’s innovation and began work on second-skin spacesuit designs. Our hypothesis was that new developments in materials (for instance, Spandex and its more sophisticated polymer descendants) plus supportive patterning of the material could make a successful counter-pressure suit feasible.
Dr. Dava Newman
The Design Fiction group explores how to spark imagination and discussion about the social, cultural, and ethical implications of new technologies through design and storytelling. The group also explores alternative ways to encourage debate using social/viral media and popular culture.
Could you hack a runner, if you could change what they were listening to?
Many people run to music and often with a device that is connected to the Internet. Their ears are online. If you could access the device and manipulate the music, could you then manipulate the runner?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG0_kbqY6JU
http://fashnerd.com/2016/03/stretchy-smart-skin-circuits-that-can-offer-tactile-feedback/
Stretchy Smart Skin Circuits That Can Offer Tactile Feedback
The stretchable electronics can be stretched like rubber up to four times in any direction and be cycled like a million times without loosing its electrical properties.
If you wonder why this could be of any significance then ask yourself the following: What has been the main complaint by consumers wearing and considering buying new technologies? And what has limited designers/developers when it came to them making wearables and smart clothing? Indeed, the ability of technology to be more seamlessly integrated into the devices and or garment. It is these kind of breakthroughs that we believe can expand design possibilities for wearable tech makers in many fields. It might not be the research results that everybody has been waiting for but when we think about smart skin circuits that can offer tactile feedback, biological sensors, electrical prosthetics and electrical solutions sewn into textile, a whole new world of possibilities suddenly presents itself.
http://mfadt.parsons.edu/2016/fun.html
Bury is a vision for intelligent and adaptive clothing that combines protection with style. It is a vision for how pollution will affect our lives and the ways we will respond. This garment protects the wearer by using reflective fabrics to increase their visibility in dim daylight which results from heavily polluted air. Its unique facial covering allows the wearer to wear a filtration mask without compromising his or her style. More importantly the garment illustrates an environment where we have almost depleted the protection of our atmosphere.
http://www.yuchenzhang.com/bury.html
http://www.yuchenzhang.com/press.html
No better example of the intersection of science and art, engineering and design -
Leonardo da Vinci