High-Tech Pitfalls

Exergaming

New technologies can make your life easier, but they can also make you a couch potato. Here are a few ways to keep fit using the latest body conscious technologies.

Exergaming - Get Fit by Playing Your Favorite Video Games

Powergrid Fitness has announced its new Exer-station™. Designed for use with PlayStation, Xbox, and GameCube. The controller translates your exercise movements into joystick controls.  

Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) a popular arcade game, is now available at home. This game features a platform with four arrows: up, down, left, and right. Players move their feet to the instructions they receive on the machine.  

The EyeToy technology (for PlayStation 2), features motion tracking, light-sensing technology and a built-in microphone to record and detect audio. It can function as a photo and video camera, snapping photos, recording video and placing players on the TV.  

Strap on your custom guitar shaped controller and find out how much energy it takes to be a rock star. The Guitar Hero SG Controller, developed by RedOctane and Harmonix, feels just like a real guitar. Choose from multiple rock characters and jam at concert venues that grow in size as your rock career progresses.  

Headphones That Really Move You

A special headset turns a reporter into a remote control toy. The device being developed by Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., sent low voltage electric current through her head to control the way she walked. "I felt a mysterious, irresistible urge to start walking to the right whenever the researcher turned the switch to the right."  


Smart Clothing

Smart fashions are the next wave in textiles and they promise to dazzle you with their style and innovation. Here are some of the hot products to look for on the runways of the future.

Researchers in the UK have developed an adaptive fabric that cools you off by opening invisible micro shutters when the humidity goes up. A separate layer keeps the rain out even when air is flowing.

Great strides in high tech tennis shoes have already been achieved. One company markets an "intelligent shoe" that senses and adapts to the environment. High speed sensors in the sole of the shoe feed information to a microprocessor that analyzes your speed, weight and terrain. A motor driven cable system in the heel then adjusts for the ideal level of cushioning.

Another area of development in smart clothing is wearable computing. Head mounted displays are already available for purchase online. Other high tech gear include fabric keypads embedded in the wrist sleeve of your jacket and backpacks with MP3 players, GPS and battery charging solar panels.

These new "techstyles" are being designed differently than your Grandmother's flannel pajamas. Smart clothing design requires a team of artists, designers, scientists and engineers bringing their individual talents together to create garments that are as appealing as they are functional.

Expect to see plenty of innovation in the textile and fashion industries in the next few years thanks to advancements in bioengineering, nanotechnology and 3D scanning techniques. 

Visit these web sites for more info:
Smart fabric adapts to temperatures
Color changing fabric
Wearable computing
Interconnection technology

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