Smart clothes that make your life easier. Are you ready for the future of fashion? – VIDEO

In a world dominated by technology, even the most common things become smart, making users’ lives easier. The IT giants, caught in a continuous competition, expanded their apps in a wide range of different industries and gave common items extra functions, from cars, watches and household items. The fashion industry made no exception, so clothes were upgraded in order to protect people and make their lives go by smoother.

Since they wanted their clothes to have as many applications as possible, the companies introduced the new technologies on clothes that can be worn anywhere, from the office, on the streets and to the beach. EvoNews made a list of state-of-the-art clothes that are already available for purchasing.

The intelligent jacket

Levi’s, one of the world’s most popular brands of jeans, closed a deal with Google in order to create, through the IT&C giant’s technology incubator, Advanced Technology and Projects group (ATAP), a smart jacket that would hit the stores this autumn, at an estimated price of $350, according to The Verge.

The jacket has the electronics components integrated inside the sleeve, as well as the area sensitive to gestures, which allows to adjust the music volume, changing the song, answering a call or transmitting GPS information.

The functionality of swipes can be personalised depending on the user’s needs. This clothing item is ideal both for bicyclists and drivers, since it reduces the amplitude of gestures and requires lower attention to answer the phone or change the music while cycling or driving.

The swimsuit that „tells” you how much time to spend in the sun

Spinali Design, a French technology company, transformed swimsuits by attaching them a waterproof device that measures the intensity of UV rays in real time, alerting the women that wear them that they have to apply again sunscreen. The sensors adapt depending on the user’s skin type, and then transmit alerts and weather advice through the smartphone.

They also include the „Valentine” function, which warns the owner’s partner that he must apply sunscreen on her body.

The company also created long or short pants and connected denim skirts, with vibrating sensors on the waistline that are connected to the smartphone through Bluetooth. These are geographically located and offer guidance to the users, by „telling” them through vibrations whether to turn right or left.

Sensors can also be personalised, so that those wanting to interact more with their surroundings adapt the vibrations’ duration, frequency and intensity. The system can also warn users when they are running late, provide security alerts, locate children or isolated workers.

The sensors can be adapted and send impulses to users only when they receive important messages by phone, email or chat, from their children or other persons, so that they can better focus on the most important activities in that moment. The connected jeans enter sleep mode when they are in the wardrobe or washing machine and are activated only when worn.

The producer declares that the clothing items in the Connected Jeans collection can be worn for four years without changing the battery, even if they are used only once a week. A denim skirt with these functions costs $142, denim shorts are priced at $153, while long denim pants are sold at $164 or $175, with prices depending on the model.

The same company has day dresses or evening gowns that communicate with the user and its through a discrete sensor with the help of a dedicated app for Android and iOS. The woman wearing such a dress can thus send messages that she is safe, while those that are alone can make contact with those around them. According to the producer, the woman that has such an item can also play various games with her partner and receive tips on fashion, information about how and when the dress was worn or since when it had been left in the wardrobe. The dresses cost between $120 and $197.

According to the company’s website, the deliveries can be made anywhere in the world.

The smart suit

Among the companies that revolutionised the fashion market is also Samsung, which presented last year, at the most famous technology fair in the United States, Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the smart suit. This has the near field communication (NFC) technology incorporated in the suit buttons, which allows the control of certain functions of the mobile phone through a simple touch, such as activating the „do not disturb” mode solely by passing the phone in front of a suit button, directly transferring business cards, as well as making payments.

The suits, made in partnership with Rogatis, are sold on the South Korean market with prices starting at $500, according to cnet.com.

The same company launched the Welt, the belt that automatically widens when the user eats too much, as well as the Sol purse, the size of a laptop, that charges the phone or tablet through the solar panels that are attached on the exterior.

Intelligent clothes for babies

Parents that want to make sure their babies are fully safe when sleeping now have the smart socks. Owlet Smart Sock 2 an track the baby’s cardiac rhythm and oxygen level during sleep. The information is directly sent onto the smartphone through a station designed to alert the parents if the cardiac rhythm or oxygen level are outside predefined limits. The socks have a price of $350, but can also be found at $300, including a pair of home slippers.

The package includes 3 different sized socks, designed to be worn until 18 months of age, the intelligent sensor that is introduced in the sock to analyse information, the station transmitting the information towards the smartphone, charging cables and 12 months of access to the dedicate smartphone app.

The producer directly delivers the smart socks only in Canada and the USA, including Alaska and Hawaii, yet they can be purchased on Amazon for a price of $598.

According to the World Health Organisation, around 3 million babies die every year in their first month of life. Neopenda, a Chicago start-up, created the smart hats, with devices for monitoring vital signals, thus being ideal for hospitals with few resources and that take care of newborns in critical condition.

The devices measure heart and breathing rates, oxygen saturation in blood at the peripheries and temperature, and  transmit the health data on a central monitor, that warns nurses when a newborn is in danger. Bluetooth also allows for up to 24 hats to be simultaneously connected to the same monitor or tablet that runs the dedicated software. Although they are still prototypes, the devices will be available at very low prices, of $1 each, in order to be accessible to everyone, especially in the developing countries, where child mortality rates are very high.

Bulletproof clothes, tested by their creators

Miguel Caballero, the Colombian that set up the company with the same name in 1992, became a sensation on the market with products that have double functionality: fashion and protecting the user’s life. The clothes created by him can be worn just like any other ones, without drawing attention upon their most important role: protecting against bullets or stabbing.

Over the years, Caballero has been working with several governments, public personalities or VIPs all over the world, from King Felipe VI of Spain, to the former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, former head of state Hugo Chavez or the current Mexican leader Enrique Pena Nieto.

He was also the one that provided Barack Obama with bulletproof clothes at this inauguration on January 20,2009. The Colombian stated that in order to prove that his clothes provide maximum protection, he shot his wife, brothers, lawyers and employees, and even experiment the efficiency on himself.

The tops, vests and jackets that Miguel Caballero creates can be purchased online on Amazon, as well as from a network of worldwide partners. The clothes are delivered for free anywhere in Europe from an online store with headquarters in Munich, but can also be bought directly from a physical store in Eindhoven, southern Netherlands.

Amazon prices start at $539 for a bulletproof top, while in Munich’s online store a similar article costs 2,223 Euros, both for men and women, and the price can reach 4,401 Euros for a bulletproof jacket for men. The website of the German partner of the producer states that the “Miguel Caballero clothing is pricey. Miguel Caballero does not compromise on quality and safety to reduce costs.

Protective clothing from Miguel Caballero is the best money can buy and it saves your life it´s worth every penny.”

The bulletproof clothes produced by the Colombian company come with a warranty of five years and there is maximum discretion regarding the customers’ identity.

The scarf that makes you invisible

In a world increasingly more surveilled, a Berlin artist called Adam Harvey created alongside Hyphen-Labs, a team of women designers, the scarf that prevents facial recognition and digital scanning.

Previously specialised in anti-surveillance systems, Harvey was inspired from the animal world when creating the scarf that troubles computers, giving them around 1,200 possible facia options when trying to identify a person.

Basically, HyperFace prints some models on textiles or clothing items, especially created for confusing the facial recognition software, using patterns that can be interpreted as various parts of the human face, such as mouth or eyes.