Tech Topics - Spring 2008 - (Page 25)

StudentLife Forget-me-not Ready-to-wear technology makes design statement By Leslie Overman MELISSA BUGG fashion E ver stood in your driveway, fumbling through your purse or pockets in search of your car keys, only to realize you left them on the coffee table, or made it to the check-out line at the grocery store to discover that you left your wallet at home? Imagine owning a jacket that tells you that you’ve forgotten these essential items before you get out the front door. Georgia Tech students have figured that one out. SmartNoti, or Smart Notification, consists of a wristband and hooded jacket that use Bluetooth technology to keep track of the wearer’s belongings. The user may tag his must-have items, such as his keys, wallet and laptop, with Bluetooth markers. SmartNoti communicates with the wearer’s cell phone, which checks to make sure all of the tags are within a given distance. If the wearer leaves behind one of his marked belongings, his cell phone notifies SmartNoti, which responds with a blink of lights or a vibration. Associate professor Thad Starner directs the Contextual Computing Group at Tech. With its chic, sporty design and slim, fitted cut, the SmartNoti hoodie may appear to be the creation of a fashion designer, but it was developed by computer science and industrial design majors at Tech in a new course on wearable electronics and mobile and ubiquitous computing that was offered during the fall semester. Several student projects, including toys that may help with the early detection of developmental disorders in children, are on display through May 3 at Museum of Design Atlanta. The project-focused class marked the first collaboration between Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture and College of Computing. Teaching the course were Atlanta fashion designer and Pecan Pie Couture founder Clint Zeagler, ID 04, who taught a course on wearable designs at the Institute last spring, and Thad Starner, associate professor of interactive computing and director of the Contextual Computing Group at Georgia Tech. “What’s great about Georgia Tech is that they allow us to do a lot of stuff in the spirit of innovation,” Starner said. He and Zeagler started out with a class of nearly 120 students but “scared half of them away with the aggressive project expectations.” The instructors, who bought much of the supplies and equipment needed for their students on their own, hope to get more funding for the course in the future. “This is the first time we’ve done it so we’re still refining it. I’ve been doing this mobile ubiquitous computing class for a while and it’s a full class. But nowadays, a lot of electronics are wearable. It’s finally gotten to a stage away from hobbyists and researchers to widespread acceptance,” said Starner, who began toting around his own wearable computer in 1993. “We’re now trying to get the ideas out into the real world, but in order to do that, you’ve got to make it desirable to the end user. You need to have a good sense of design and a good sense of usability, as well as a good sense of how to do the hard-core computer science. Combining the industrial design methods with the TECHTOPICS Fashionable and forgetful people may not want to leave home without the SmartNoti hoodie. ICS methods and computer hardware work seemed like a good thing. We ended up with students who’ve never designed hardware before making stateof-the-art textiles.” One group of students designed a stylish new uniform to help fencers improve their form. The black suit is accented with red ribbon trim on which conductive thread and sensors are sewn. When the fencer performs the four movements of a lunge maneuver in the correct order, the sensors glow green; if he steps out of order, the sensors turn red. Among the non-wearable student projects is one that may assist researchers in the early detection of autism. A stuffed caterpillar and mobile play set were constructed with fabric circuits and sensors that record and monitor how infants and toddlers interact with the toys. “[Researchers] are trying to create screening tools to determine when children are at risk for autism and they sit there and hand label all the child’s movements, frame by frame, with video,” Starner said. “It’s extremely painful for all the poor grad students who are doing it, so we’re trying to incorporate things like accelerometers and capacitive sensors so we know exactly when the child touched the system. We put these in a researcher’s office and have the child play with the mobile or caterpillar or different objects. The researcher can then go back and label the video carefully and use it for experiments, like, ‘Yes, the child showed these signs and indeed he did develop autism.’” Several of the student projects in the exhibit have caught the attention of researchers and businesses. A local school for deaf children is interested in a stuffed bear that helps teach young children sign language. Starner is in talks with companies that are interested in software students have developed that enables 911 operators to communicate with deaf callers. Zeagler said even the less successful student groups learned a valuable lesson from the course — communication skills. “What we tried to do was put industrial design students and computer science students together on the same team,” he said. “Industrial designers are going to have to work with engineers, and computer science majors are going to have to work with designers, so it’s better to teach them that now. “Even when things didn’t work out the way they were supposed to, they learned that they had to know how to communicate with someone who speaks a totally different language.” GT Pecan Pie Couture founder Clint Zeagler previously taught a class on wearable designs. | SPRING 2008 25

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Tech Topics - Spring 2008 Contents Mail Call Gold & White Honors Alumni House Sweet Spring Centennial Buzz Supreme Court Victory The Hill ‘Treasure Trove’ of Stories Living History Forget-me-not Fashion Student Life Investing in Graduates Giving Back Training the Next Generation Burdell & Friends Ingredients for Success Yellow Jackets Hockey Club Ices Georgia Tech Job Hunters Fare Well Real World

Tech Topics - Spring 2008

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