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.
Designer Jennifer Darmour's newest creation isn't just a top -- it's also a personal trainer. Four stretch-and-bend sensors, made of woven conductive thread, line the spine, front and sides of the Move vest, tracking the wearer's movements to within a 2mm precision, analysing them on the fly. If the wearer's posture is deemed incorrect, four actuators in the shoulder and hip areas vibrate gently to nudge the wearer into the right position. Detailed data is also sent to a mobile app so that users can record their movement sequences and set targets for yoga, Pilates, sports or physical therapy sessions.
Seattle-based Darmour, owner and creative director at electricfoxy, which blends fashion, technology and interactive design, began designing the Move in early 2010. (She's currently working on version two.) "The biggest challenge was the software and the logic behind that," says the 37-year-old. "Measuring different movements involves a lot of algorithms."
Darmour's background is in product design for companies such as Microsoft, Google and BlackBerry. "A lot of designers take a garment and just add blinking lights to it," she says. "That has a place, but we need to move away from novelty towards really useful, beautiful systems. What I'm looking at is how you can connect these garments to software and data."
But geek needs to be chic, too (take note, Google Project Glass): "As soon as you put these things on your body, design, aesthetics and style become core to the experience," says Darmour.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
