Wearable Electronics

“Concept” and “bra” aren’t two words you’d typically expect to go together too often. After all, a bra is the epitome of simplicity. As Seinfeld's George Costanza once remarked, “Two cups in the front, two loops in the back. How do they do it?” Well, Japanese lingerie maker Triumph International has complicated the humble undergarment with its concept “Konkatsu bra” – a bra that is designed to help Japanese women search for husbands by proudly declaring they're on the hunt.  Read More

We love the thinking behind Romain Jerome's manufactured authenticity and its legend DNA blends, so it's not surprising that we also love the irreverence of the Tourbillon Steampunk A la Grande. It's an exceptional timepiece featuring intensely accentuated physical characteristics, distinctive bolts, an anchor-shaped off-centred oscillating weight, 6-sided screws, Roman numerals, characteristic paws, a tourbillon, the collection’s trademark rust, along with a number of springs and rivets…. the result is a fascinating blend of apparent anarchy and undeniably noble charm.  Read More

Mobile phones and laptop computers have made traditional 9-to-5 workdays a thing of the past for many workers. That ability to work from any location, however, can be a double-edged sword. The flexibility to be freed from the office also means that work is increasingly encroaching on people’s recreation time, as they find they are never really off the clock. That situation looks set to worsen, or improve, depending on your perspective, with the introduction of the Golden-i from Kopin Corporation. The Golden-i is a Bluetooth headset that provides a 15-inch virtual display with a hands-free, natural-speech-recognition interface for wireless remote control over a range of devices including mobile phones, PCs, company networks and wireless systems.  Read More

Aliph has announced the latest addition to its sleek Jawbone line of Bluetooth headsets - the Jawbone PRIME. The new unit gets enhanced "NoiseAssassin" suppression technology compared with previous generations, delivering 6 to 9dB of improvement when holding conversations in noisy environments. Attention has also been paid to optimizing the headset's performance in windy conditions, with Digital Signal Processing techniques applied to reconstruct distorted low-end speech frequencies in winds up to 10 mph. In a market segment where aesthetics plays almost as big a role as functionality, Jawbone PRIME also ushers in a new range of colors and several earbud options designed to deliver a better fit.  Read More

While laptops have ushered in the era of mobile computing, their form factor still dictates the need to use a desk, table, or at the very least, a lap. Other handheld units are easier to use on the move but would be even better if we had another appendage, given that one hand is rendered useless through the need to hold the device. The solution - wear your computer. This example for Glacier Computer - the new Ridgeline W200 wearable computer - combines the same features of a standard computer with a device that straps to the wrist to provide hands-free operation while retaining full access at all times.  Read More

While we've seen our share of obscure and unusual watch designs, we're always on the lookout for the next innovation that might catch on in the world of wrist worn timepieces. This example may not prove to be the next Swatch, but the customizable OLED "UNI watch" concept by Takemura Ori definitely caught our eye.  Read More

Dashboard cameras mounted on police vehicles have proven their worth in backing up courtroom testimony by providing a video record of incidents – as well as giving reality cop shows a veritable wealth of real life footage. Now a new product from Taser International, the company responsible for the electroshock weapon that bears that name, takes the idea one step further by capturing video and audio of incidents from the visual perspective of the responding officer.  Read More

Call it anti-social if you like, but a lot of people listen to portable music players to avoid being spoken to. This hasn’t stopped Apple adding a new VoiceOver feature that speaks song titles, artists and playlist names to the latest iPod shuffle while also shrinking it to nearly half the size of its predecessor. The third generation Shuffle can store 4GB (around 1,000 songs) worth of music in a unit that is smaller than an AA battery. This reduction in size has seen the controls moved from the unit itself onto the included earphone cord - an immediate issue if you don’t happen to like Apple’s earphones. The featureless aluminum design includes the usual built-in stainless steel clip for wearability, but the feature sure to get the most interest is VoiceOver.  Read More

Just a few weeks back, we wrote about an exhibition celebrating the Blancpain 50 fathoms watch, one of the most desirable technological boys' toys of the last half century. Now, on the eve of the Baselworld 2009 watch show, Blancpain has released details of the new 500 Fathoms watch. That's right, it's water-resistant to ten times the depth of the 50 fathoms and will now take you safely to 1000 metres depth and back. Quite appropriately, it comes equipped with a helium decompression valve which is vital when diving in a closed environment.  Read More