Apple's smart watch, Google Glass, Microsoft's fitness band: tech companies are cashing in on the trend for wearable devices, an industry predicted to rocket from 1.4 to 19 billion dollars by 2018.
But of course wearables only live up to their name if people WANT to wear them -- and research has shown one of the biggest problems consumers have with the devices is that they look clunky and unfashionable.
A new generation of fabric-makers and clothing designers is looking to fill that gap by integrating technology such as sensors or LEDs directly into our garments.
Rebecca Bowring reports.
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Wearables are all the rage.
UPSOT Put it on your wrist and push the button and it'll turn right on.
From Wristify, a smart bracelet that cuts energy use by heating or cooling the wearer…
UPSOT You can do a few different signals to tell it to do different things.
to lightweight 3D-printed robotic hands for young amputees.
But many wearables feel bulky -- so new innovation aims to take them off our bodies and put them into what we wear.
BeBop Sensors, in Berkeley, near San Francisco, recently unveiled an ultra-thin "smart fabric", packed full of sensors, that can give real-time information on motion, bending and pressure.
They see applications in everything from ski jackets to baseball gloves to yoga mats.
Keith McMillen is Founder and CEO of BeBop Sensors.
SOT Keith McMillen, Founder and CEO, BeBop Sensors
The sensors can operate and communicate through fabric to a small embedded circuit that will then take over the rest of the processing and transmission of the data.
The company's found an ingenious way to use kinetic energy to power their embedded circuits.
Placed inside a shoe, a smart fabric insole sends data to a remote device via bluetooth - visualized on a screen, the virtual shoe can show a person how they're walking and help to correct their gait.
Likewise connected chair cushions highlight uneven weight distribution.
And the smart fabric, fitted within a cap, can record the force of a sports injury…such as a strike from a baseball bat…
NATSOUND Bat strike
The company transitioned to fabrics from elegant electronic instruments -- and understands that wearables must look good!
Keith McMillen again.
SOT Keith McMillen, Founder and CEO, BeBop Sensors
They either have to be beautiful or unnoticeable.
BeBop Sensors is looking for clothing manufacturers and distributors to help bring their smart fabric to the high street in about six months time.
Those creations will have a health or fitness dimension, but plenty of designers are mixing fashion and technology just for the fun of it…
UPSOT: Our goal is to develop the world's first commercially available digital t-shirt...
tshirtOS is the brainchild of San Francisco startup Switch Embassy -- it's a programmable, shareable t-shirt with an LED screen, camera and microphone that connects to a smartphone.
UPSOT: The story it tells is up to you.
But will anyone buy it?
Owen Geronimo, Founder of the San Francisco Fashion And Merchants Alliance, says attracting millennials to such "fash-tech" is key.
SOT Owen Geronimo, Founder, San Francisco Fashion And Merchants Alliance
If it's affordable and it's cool, sort of like fast fashion approach, that they will buy.
In the future, smart fabrics combined with 3D printing may give us all the chance to design and make our own clothes…while keeping track of how the body underneath is functioning too.
Rebecca Bowring, Berkeley, California
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