HM Coolhunt 4 – sustainable & wearable tech
Over the last few years, solar panels have become more and more popular. In every city you can see them on the roof, on the speed indicators, street lights etc. I already told in one of my previous blogs that they are also being used on airplanes.
This Coolhunt is about wearable tech and most of the examples are also sustainable.
The first concept is ‘Carbon’ from Energy Blinks – ‘It’s the only watch that can charge your smartphone’. Via solar cells in the screen it’s possible to give a smartphone around 3 hours more time to call. However, the ‘carbon’ is not available yet, it’s still a kickstarter project.
The carbon makes it possible to charge your phone everywhere, even in places without power outlets. Thereby, it’s very sustainable because of the solar cells.
Another example of wearable technology for charging your phone are the dresses from ‘Pauline van Dongen’, called ‘Wearable Solar’. She has two prototypes, a dress and a coat wherein solar cells are integrated. With this dress you can charge your phones’ complete battery.
Wearable solar is a collaboration between three companies: Pauline van Dongen, she is the fashion designer, Gert- Jan Jongeden from Exergy, as solar energy specialist and Gelderland Valoriseert.
A third concept is the Vega Edge, it’s an elegent and simple wearable light. When I got my new bicycle, after 3 months the light on the back broke already . Since then I have always been struggling with working back lights. The lights got stolen, I forgot to turn them off which emptied the battery or I forgot them at home. But now they have invented a good solution. You can wear the light with all your clothes, it just looks like an accessorize. The Vega Edge contains four strong magnets, making it click securely at your clothes. At this moment they are working with batteries that run for 20 hours. I think that if they are going to work with solar panels the lights will both improve people’s safety AND the environment.
I’ve also found two other examples that are not sustainable yet at this moment but have much to do with wearable tech. Thereby, there is a big chance that they will be sustainable in the future.
The first one is a design from Borre Akkersdijk. He designs clothes that are closely intertwined with technology. Borre Akkersdijk created a tech- heavy onesie. If you put the onesie on you will turn into a walking wifi hotspot. It’s called the ‘BB.Suit’ (Crunchwear).
‘Akkersdijk is more than a critic, though, and has designed a product that attempts to illustrate his vision for what truly wearable technology should look like’.
This onesie was shown off at SXSW festival two months ago and, as such, it is to be considered only a working prototype (Crunchwear).
The last concept for this has a lot to do with the sector Human Movement, the sector where we are busy with at school for the past 5 weeks.
It is called the Glowfaster smart jacket. ‘The jacket lights up and flashes to show if you’re quick enough’ (Dailymail). ‘The lights also show you how your training is going, whether your heart rate is at target and whether you are at target speed. The Glowfaster App controls the jacket via Bluetooth to allow the user to set up the smart clothing to their own settings and gain motivation intuitively from their own biofeedback’ (kickstarter). Ex- marine Simon Weatherall came up with the idea of the jacket, which has been designed by Joanna Kent. the jacket was seen on BBC Dragons Den. And at this moment it’s looking for funds online at Kickstarter. The jacket is already finished but now they are trying to combine the power unit and the control unit into one complete compact item. They also have massive plans to extend their smart clothing range further.
Why are the concepts cool?
I think that not all the wearable tech innovations are cool, but I think that the examples I have given are good solutions.
The wearable tech encourages people to excercise more. The Vega Lite is a good example of wearable tech that promotes the safety of people.
The other examples ensure that having a smartphone don’t have to be harmful for the environment anymore.
I showed a few concepts that are not yet sustainable but I think that in the future all the wearable tech gadgets will become sustainable. Solar panels have been invented in all shapes and sizes. I think that in the future all our phones will have solar panels so we don’t need to charge them anymore!
Why it has future growth potential:
Obese is a worldwide problem. Almost one and a half billion people over the world are overweight. A lot of companies are inventing a lot of wearable gadgets to stimulate people.
Thereby people don’t have to do much themselves with this wearable tech to save energy which makes it easier to be good for the environment.
Quality of Life
At last, these concepts can improve our quality of life.
Our physical wellbeing is improved for instance. It has a good effect on the parts Health and fitness because all the gadgets will make people move more which makes them more healthy and more fit.
In the ‘category’ material wellbeing it can be classified in the ‘category’ safety and transport. The new gadgets make it safer for people on the road.
It also can be classified in the ‘category’ social wellbeing to social involvement. It makes it easier for people to be sustainable and more involved to the world.
Check the links below for more information:
– http://www.crunchwear.com/energy-bionics-presents-solar-watch-also-charges-phone/
– http://www.han.nl/start/corporate/nieuws/nieuws/jurk-met-zonnecellen-dwdd/
– http://design-milk.com/vega-edge-wearable-light-works-wardrobe/
– http://byborre.com/#/
– http://www.wired.com/2014/04/3-d-printed-fabrics-turn-body-suit-into-wearable-mp3-player/
– http://www.crunchwear.com/tech-heavy-onesie-turns-walking-wi-fi-hotspot/
– http://www.gizmag.com/glowfaster-fitness-jacket/31007/
– https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1944279378/glowfaster-smart-jacket-heart-rate-gps-gaming-and?ref=discovery
– http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/glowfaster-jacket
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