I’m an avid fan of smart clothing and embedding electronics in mundane things. Coupled with aesthetics, Philips’ Design Probes don’t fail in geeking me out. Among the concepts are electronic, morphing tattoos and biosensing jewelery — stick-on sensors that monitor the bioactivity of the wearer.

As described on their project page, Philips’ Design Probes take a look at emerging trends in lifestyles:

With the aim of understanding ‘lifestyle’ post 2020, the program aims to identify probable systemic shifts in the social and economic domains likely to affect our business and create intellectual property in new areas. It challenges conventional ways of thinking to come up with concepts to stimulate debate. Deliverables range from scenarios and narratives to the creation of experience prototypes and IP fortressing.

A haunting concept and fruit of their labor is the SKIN:Tattoo which explores how electronic ink could be used to enable people to have dynamic tattoos that change their shape response to stimuli. There’s a concept video on the project page which portrays their vision — two lovers whose touch triggers tattoos to grow and mutate.

The Electronic Sensing Jewelery is perhaps closer to reality. Developed jointly with the European Stella Project, the Skintile project explores stretchable, electronic stick-on devices that sense the condition of the wearer and change their appearance accordingly.

Written on what must’ve been a Blue Monday following three consequtive days of Tequila parties, they forgot to add what exactly the jewelery is meant to do. Thankfully for their sake, the concept of stick-on biosensing jewelery is geeklicious. So they got my attention regardless.

And now for something completely different: SMELL.

There is a great deal of cultural taboo about body odors, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth exploring. Tests have shown that women can identify the most genetically suitable partner for reproduction purely on the basis of smelling a T-shirt he has worn.

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In SMELL, a prototype apparatus was created which basically captures odors from the body and not only communicates them to the wearer but also to other people. Dogs are reputedly able to sniff out cancer, so our work may initiate dialogue that leads to medical practitioners being able to carry out smell-based diagnoses.

There’s not much media available for the project, but they do include this design of a Smellsuit that allows you to smell yourself. My first reaction to this was being a bit grossed out, but having given it a few minutes I find its strangeness intriguing. (At least there’s no way to claim it isn’t unique).

Links and References

• Philips’ Design Probes
• Stella Project — flexible electronics