- Fabric (Synthetic Fur, Polar)
- Conductive Fabric
- Conductive Thread
- Iron on Interface
- Magnetic Snaps
- Crimping Beads
- Surface Mounted LEDs
- Digital Voice Recorder
- Motor
- Cable
- Crazy Glue
Name of product
Electropuff™
Name and contact info of manufacturer
Yuka Petz
International Fashion Machines, Inc.
1205 East Pike Street Suite 2G
Seattle, WA 98122
www.ifmachines.com
Phone:206 860 5166
Fax: 206 568 3088
Electrical and Physical Characteristics
The ElectroPUFF Lamp Dimmer is a soft, whimsical pompom that connects to any incandescent table lamp and controls light levels with just a gentle tap. IFM’s patented electronic-textile technology is the magic behind the ElectroPUFF. Special conductive yarns that sense your touch are combined with colorful recycled carpet fibers to form the soft switch.
Intended Uses
Light Levels controler
Imagined Uses
The most important part for me of this product, is the interaction with something through touch, here are my ideas:
- Control for temperature
- Computer mouse
- Long distance communication device; creating heat and lighting up when one of the party want to send a message.
- Musical pillow
- Carpet
- Paperwall
Example of material in use
Essential™ Square Wall Dimmer
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Pom Pom™ Wall dimmer
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Petal Pusher
Interactive textile and light installation that explores the hidden electrical and transmissive properties of textiles. When viewers touch the tufted, electronic textile sensor area of each pattern, the felt and embroidered yarns are illuminated from behind, revealing the light transmissive properties of the textile. Color variation and reflection chan
ge as viewers illuminate different panels at four different light levels. Forty-nine unique patterns - all derived from a single motif - are available, in numerous configurations. Each pattern is limited to an edition of twelve.
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Sample Dimmer Board
It's funny how fashion and fantasy can get along so well, and when someone puts together fantasy with some high fashion aspects, one can actually see how superheroes, as fantasy figures like princesses, can be part of this "fashionable fantasy". Isn't fashion about standing out the human body (male or female) attributes? Well, this as what superheroes garments are about too, they show you who this person is, what are his/her strenghts and how his garments are a metaphor of the world they live or come from. At the end, fashion acts as a visual representation of what a superheroe is.
One of the things I really liked, well, I'm not sure if it was more intriguing than appealing to me, the part of the metaphorical representation of garments; masks, capes, suits. It was quite interesting for me the materials designer used to create their own versions of these garments, and how some of them, didn't look too far from actual daily ones, I'm not sure when or where, but I can recall some of these pieces on a woman walking on the street. Well, I guess that's why fashion can be considered so close to a fantasy world, since we can choose everyday who we want to be and the role we want to play depending on our clothes, and like superheroes, what part of us we want people to notice more, and how we want to be perceived.
Michael Chabon's article "Secret Skin":
"...One knew, of course, that it was not the red cape any more than it was the boots, the tights, the trunks, or the trademark “S” that gave Superman the ability to fly."
"The superhero's iconic costume of cape, mask, and bodysuit finds many fashionable permutations. But fashion's embrace of the superhero extends beyond iconography, to issues of identity, sexuality, and nationalism. Fashion shares with the superhero an inherent metaphorical malleability which fuels its fascination with the idea and the ideal of the superhero."
photo by Sam Horine. The Village Voice
I made a prototype of a soft circuit for the project I'm making, I started building the pattern of a glove and then stitching with a machine the circuit lines, using conductive thread on the spool of the machine. I made a soft switch for the ring and a battery holder. All works, now I have to add the sound part of the project.
Here are the pictures.
After today's feedback in class, I decided to work with the wonder twins and the rings.
So my idea is using LEDs and a buzzer (I'm considering the idea to use a recordable device). All of them will be activated when the rings touch each other, both the LEDs and the buzzer will be on a glove, and the rings will function as soft switches.
This is the diagram for the actual circuit:
Materials:
The Circuit:
This are all the tests I did before doing the final circuit prototype, since I'm not too familiar with circuits, I guess my process is longer than it should, and maybe I end up doing things a little bit more complicated.
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First Prototype:
Putting LEDs in parallel to create the circuit.
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Prototype 2:
LEDs in series, adding a soft switch I made for a previous class.
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Prototype 3:
Using the LEDs in series with a smaller soft switch.
The construction of the soft switch, using Leah Buechley’s soft switch tutorial [link]:
Building the circuit:
(the final prototype)
The first thing that came to my mind with this assignment was the garments superheroes use, how they are different from each other not only because of their power, but the way they look like; garments are they’re way to communicate in a visual way who they are, what they do, and who they work with.
Then I thought about super heroines, and how they normally have really sexy garments, if they don’t show a lot of skin they have tights that enhance the body and they physical attributes they have. So the next step for me was, if I had to pick a super heroine I really like and make a “fashionable technology” garment, who would I choose? And how can I reflect what she is by this wearable I have to design?
So what I did, just pick my three top super heroines and take a little closer look to them.
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Wonder Woman
Alter Ego:
Princess Diana of Themyscira
Weapons:
Bullet Proof Bracelets
Magic Lasso
Abilities:
God-like strength, speed, reflexes, stamina, durability, and hearing
Flight
Superior hand-to-hand and weapons combat skills
Animal empathy
Regeneration
Resistance to magic
Immunity to illusions and mind control
Ability to discern truth
Access to magical weaponry.
Garment:
Headband
Leotard
Boots
Bracelets
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Catwoman
Alter Ego:
Selina Kyle
Weapons:
Claws
Tail
Whip
Nine Lives
Abilities:
Peak athlete
Extremely skilled hand-to-hand combatant.
Expert burglar
Steel spring-loaded climbing pitons
Razor-sharp retractable claws
Wields an assortment of bullwhips and cat o’ nine tails as gymnastic equipment
Garment:
Mask
Bodysuit with attached boots (with domino-shaped infrared goggles on her cowl)
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Jayna (Wonder Twins)
Weapons:
Ring
Their powers were activated when the twins touched each other and spoke the words “Wonder Twin powers, activate!”
Abilities:
Can transform into any animal, whether real, mythological, indigenous to Earth or to some other planet.
Garment:
Ring
Tights
Boots
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After reviewing these super heroines (one of them considered a villain), I started looking for a wearable and a power I could work with, with Wonder Woman, I thought it could be interesting working with her bracelets and make them her communication device, sending wireless signals and messages to anyone. For Catwoman, her claws and mask were the things that captured my attention, since she is an expert burglar, she would need some motion detection device for be aware of the presence of someone else.
I have to admit that my ideas were always thought with the fact that I have to build it, so that’s why I needed to keep it kind of simple for a superhero but challenging for myself.