What if your clothing could change colors with everything that you touch? The Norwegian studio named Drap og Design created Interacket, a light-up jacket lined with LED lights that shifts its hue depending on what the wearer touches. Put your hand on a red door, and a red light will spread across the jacket’s sleeve. Similarly, coming in contact with a green sign means that part of the garment will mimic said hue.
Interacket was inspired by the animal kingdom – a chameleon, specifically – and started as an exploration in how the reptiles interact with their surroundings; special abilities allow chameleons to be seen or unseen within their environment, and Drap og Design researched how to imitate this quality using electronics and wearable technology.
The translucent jacket’s outer layer is made of a simple painter’s suit while the inner layer is constructed of reflective foil and diffusive fabric. It works by using a pair of Ardunio chips and built-in sensors to detect colors that are physically touched. Once you have your hand on a surface, that hue is projected by the LED lights in the sleeves. The entire thing is powered by a single 9-volt battery.
While this garment doesn’t exactly camouflage you like a chameleon (the lights are pretty bright), it’s an impressive prototype that could be helpful if you want to be seen in the dark. All you’d have to do is touch the nearest thing around you.
Drap og Design and Hackaday page
via [Co.Design and CNET]