This article was taken from the September 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
What does fashion lack? "Microcontrollers", according to Anouk Wipprecht, a 27-year-old designer from the Netherlands. Once you add them, wearable technology can go beyond just colourful LED displays.
Wipprecht's DareDroid 2.0, a cocktail-making dress <span class="s1">(pictured), is a case in point.
The dress, created with programmer Marius Kintel and artist Jane Tingley, is equipped with infrared sensors in the neck area that detect people at three stages of proximity: when there is a general crowd, when somebody enters the "personal space of the design" (between 46 and 122 centimetres) and when someone is within "intimate distance" -- closer than 46 centimetres. As they approach, the system will serve up a non-alcoholic shot.
To get their drink mixed with alcohol (usually gin), the visitor must play a touchscreen-based game of truth or dare. "If you do what the system on the model wants, you are rewarded with a drink," says Wipprecht. "If not, you'll be ignored and left with a shot of nothing." Get too close to the model, and the dress flashes red and shuts down.
Wipprecht has studied fashion since she was 14, but for the last four years has been interested in "animating" her designs. She taught herself Arduino and uses it to prototype designs, before creating customised circuit boards.
Her newest creation, the battery-driven Smoke Dress, contains miniature smoke machines made by German manufacturer Look Solutions. Blinking LEDs sewn into the dress are designed to attract interest, "but as soon as you approach, it covers itself in smoke -- just like an octopus in self-defence." Arduino is the new farthingale.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
