We all know the iPhone with it’s application variety can control almost anything imaginable. So it was only a matter of time that creative minds made the link to clothing.
Artistic designer Alexander Reeder in collaboration with Yutaka Takahashi and Junpei Wada link up the iPhone with a jacket that can contain various modules such as an 8×8 LED matrix display on the back.
The iPhone loaded with an application can then turn the back of the jacket into your very personal message board to scroll your Twitter feeds, show your mood status or visualize the beat of your song you are listening.
Another module in the making is interesting for bikers, a flip of the wrist will illuminate the wrist area indicating your left or right turn. I could very well imagine some sort of breaking lights in the jacket as the iPhone with the integrated accelerometer can detect when you hit the breaks on the bike.
As far as I can see on Alexander’s Web site the iPhone controlled jackets will be produced and launched later this year, so this is not a design concept and looks like this is going to be commercially available in time for Christmas.
Watch the video below to get an idea how the ‘Vanilla Series’ of iPhone jackets will work.
This seems to be the first clothing item that does not control the iPhone like the iPod/i{hone enabled jackets we have seen in the past with textile keypads on the sleeve but these Vanilla Jackets are controlled by an iPhone.
I see this as another interesting step towards more interactive clothing.
[via: Fashioning Technology]
