Consider, if you will, this scenario: scientists searching for a flexible, stretchable material for wearable technology decide to use chewing gum—and it’s not even in the Twilight Zone. Here’s how it went: one scientist chewed gum (brand unspecified) for 30 minutes; some other scientists washed the gum with ethanol. After letting it sit overnight (perhaps on a bedpost), they … [Read more...]
About Pugi Kohl
VFILES, XO Help Lady Gaga Fly In the Face of Fashion
VFILES, a New York Web portal, is a clearinghouse for digital fashion, a social network for all aspects of the burgeoning tech fashion industry. They’re the source for Lady Gaga’s flying dress, Volantis, and Azealia Banks’s “mermaid bra,” both by Studio XO. They're now collaborating on bringing the clothes to the public. The Volantis flying dress has gotten a lot of media … [Read more...]
Tattoos for Healthy Living
Tattoos, however cool, are not usually associated with health, but Austin-based tech development company Chaotic Moon Studios is looking to change that with TechTats. The biowearable has an elegant steampunk look, with all the circuitry operational. It can track the wearer’s biometric data via an Atiny85 microcontroller and electro conductive paint, and download the data to … [Read more...]
EasyJet: Uniforms Go Digital, Planes Remain Unchanged
The low-cost European airline EasyJet, comparable to JetBlue in the U.S., is celebrating its 20th birthday by taking cabin and engineer uniforms into the (near) future. The uniforms, designed by British design shop CuteCircuit, have lights and LED displays and likely some bells and whistles as well. Engineers’ uniforms are a little spooky, with lit-up hoods and sleeves; … [Read more...]
“Pay As You Live” Health Insurance?
Someone's got the bright dystopian idea of using fitness tracker data to individualize health insurance rates. The "Pay as You Live" concept is based on "Pay as You Drive" insurance programs such as Progressive’s Snapshot, where you snap a dongle in your car to track how you drive; safer behaviors supposedly result in lower car insurance rates. Some members of the British … [Read more...]
Tech from India: Neyya Rings the Changes
Fin Robotics, a startup from Kerala, has taken India into the global wearables market with Neyya ring, the device formerly known as Fin. Fin was announced at the January 2014 CES show. Then it was to be an optical device that could turn your hand into a tap-and-swipe interface. With crowdfunding and mentoring by the Startup Village in Kochi, as well as interest from technology … [Read more...]
Weather Changes Transform Pricey Accessories
The Unseen, a London-based design studio, has developed an ink that changes color in reaction to, basically, weather conditions: air pressure, wind, heat, and light. It might not sound earthshaking, but the company partnered with the very upscale London Selfridges, voted best department store in the world in 2014. The result is limited editions of some very beautiful leather … [Read more...]
Wearable Artificial Kidney Could Make Dialysis Machines Dinosaurs
Victor Gura, an associate clinical professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, and his colleagues have developed and are testing the first wearable dialysis machine. Patients who need dialysis must currently go to clinics and hospitals, where they are hooked up to a machine and spend as much as four hours sitting while the machine removes waste and … [Read more...]
Isansys Lifecare: Early Warning System for Sick Children
An English hospital is working on a project that uses wearables to predict when kids may be about to have a medical crisis. Isansys Lifecare, Ltd. is the technological power behind a revolutionary project at Birmingham (England) Children’s Hospital that has the potential to save a lot of young lives. Project RAPID (Real-Time Adaptive & Predictive Indicator of … [Read more...]
Technology with a Punch
There are plenty of wearable fitness devices that track what we might call the universals: speed, breathing, effort are part of every athletic experience. Now we’re beginning to see devices that are geared to professionals, and specific to individual sports. Hykso, a Montreal startup, is developing wearable tech for boxers that measures hits and blocks, and feeds the data to … [Read more...]