SIGGRAPH Cyberfashion 2005

Saw this linked from FORTUNE Magazine's Street Life column. How about using these as adaptive tech communication devices for people with disabilities, or as voice-activated displays for bicycle commuters?

Luminous Wearables & Future Couture
Nyx Illuminated Clothing
Contact John Bell at niccollc@earthlink.net

Los Angeles based Nyx offers a new line of jackets with illuminated text or patterns that scroll across chest, arms, and back. Text is entered using a Palm Pilot device and beamed to the jacket display screens. A cell phone enabled Palm Pilot allows text messages, emails, and internet information to be downloaded right to the jacket. The screens are thin, flexible, and waterproof, so the jackets are lightweight and washable. They are powered by four rechargeable AA batteries stored in one pocket, which last up to eight hours. An embedded microphone provides a sound responsive function: environmental sounds can trigger various patterns that dance to the beat of the music. Jackets are expected to retail for a couple of hundred dollars sometime early next year. Other applications for the new technology are anticipated in the safety lighting, personal advertising, and entertainment industries.

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What Creates Energy In Organizations?

An excellent article by Wayne Baker (University of Michigan), Rob Cross (Univ of Virginia), & Andrew Parker (IBM). The authors use social networking analysis to investigate how people generate or destroy energy in their organizations.