A startling and dynamic dress has emerged from a joint development between Johannes Kepler University, Linz and fashiontech designer Anouk Wipprecht. A multitude of head-mounted electrodes on a wearer collect a deluge of detailed brain activity data, which is visualised by the dress of the wearer, in the form of movement and colour changes. The dress is a mix of beautifully sculpted rigid elements and textiles. The rigid elements are needed to provide support for the servo motors generating the movement, while Neopixel LED’s generate the points of changing colour. The sensor segments on the wearers scalp have a diamond pattern, inspired by Pangolin scales. From the photos it seems the sensors need to be directly attached to skin to access the fine brain activity. Currently, the wearer is tethered to the receiving equipment, but it is hoped soon to have wireless connectivity. A full explanation of the monitoring technology, its uses and the dress is given in the excellent IEEE article referenced below. It is great to see leading edge engineering and fashion design coming together.
In the video we see the garment in action.
Interestingly, Pangolin scales have previously been the inspiration for fashion. In 2017 Moritz Waldemeyer used the shape and layering of Pangolin scales to create a dynamic head piece for Jamiroquai’s frontman Jay Kay. In this servo motors and multi-coloured LED’s were also the source of changing visual effect.
Source:IEEE Spectrum