Toronto Wearables Meetup 22

Wearable Sample
Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - 11:00pm to Thursday, April 25, 2013 - 1:00am

SPECIAL EVENT: Social Body Lab Research Projects

SoMo Dance Sensors

Like JLo, the name SoMo is a blending of two words, sound and movement. These words are the foundation of the product; a wearable device that generates real time sound through body movement. Wearing SoMo is a playful, engaging and interactive experience that inspires creative movement. It can be used for live performances or within an educational setting. Loretta Faveri is an emerging artist and designer working in wearable technology and textile arts. In 2012 Loretta formed SonicWear, a small design studio aimed at developing wearable sensors for dancers.  SoMo, their first prototype, consists of footwear that enables dancers to generate sound through their movements. 

Nudgeables Accessory Kits

Sometimes we need secret codes to communicate with our friends, partners, or colleagues while in the company of a larger group of people: a nudge, a cough, a scratch of the nose; something that says “save me from this conversation”, “let’s get out of here”, or “I’m thinking of you”.  What if our clothing could communicate these messages for us? Created by the Social Body Lab, the Nudgeables Accessory Kit is a modular hardware kit for creating paired sets of wireless wearable accessories.  By creatively embedding wireless communication into yours and your partner’s garments/accessories, you are able to secretly “nudge” each other at a distance.

Vega-X Bike Lights

Being seen at night is a huge concern for cyclists. Danger arises when lights are stolen, or left at home, leaving the rider vulnerable. While there are several lights on the market that are worn on the body, their aesthetic is more suited to deer hunting than bar hopping. The Social Body Lab, along with fashion designer Angella Mackey, have been researching ways to create bicycle lights that are stylish, modular, and worn on the body. They have been investigating materials, light diffusion, fabrication technologies, circuitry and fastening. Ultimately, you won’t forget to bring your lights when they blend seamlessly into your wardrobe.

Venue & Address: 
OCAD U, 205 Richmond St. W., Room 7301
Keywords: 

Toronto Wearables Meetup 23

Wearable Sample
Tuesday, October 29, 2013 - 11:00pm to Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - 1:00am

Izzy Camilleri, IZ Adaptive Collection

As one of Canada’s top fashion designers, Izzy Camilleri has been in the fashion business for 30 years. Establishing herself as a premier designer in both Canadian and international fashion scenes, Camilleri creates collections that are inspiring, iconic, polished and modern. In 2006, Camilleri won the Fashion Designer of the Year award and in 2009 she became an industry pioneer through the launch of the revolutionary IZ Adaptive Collection, a line of adaptive apparel designed for people with physical disabilities who use a wheelchair. All adaptations closely follow the seated line of the body eliminating excess fabric bulk from the front, sides and back resulting in a streamlined, polished look. The design features of this contemporary yet classic collection make dressing effortless for both the wearer and assistant.

Maz Ghaderi and Ryan Maksymic, OCADU Graduate Candidates

Sufism is a mystical divergence rooted in Islam and is characterized with shamanism, poetic thought, and a display of devotion to The Beloved through prayer, mediation and song. Due to its esoteric, peaceful and apolitical nature, Sufism, and most notably Rumi’s work, has gained quite a following in the West. Dissolving Self employs metaphoric data visualization, motion capture and wearable technology to harness the subtle movements of a contemporary dancer.  Maz Ghaderi and Ryan Maksymic are both OCADU Digital Futures Graduate Candidates.

Venue & Address: 
OCAD U - 205 Richmond St. W., Room 7401
Keywords: 

Toronto Wearables Meetup 24

Wearable Sample
Wednesday, November 27, 2013 - 12:00am to 2:00am

Mike Lovas, PUSH

PUSH is a fitness tracking device that measures reps, force, speed, volume load and explosive strength, among other qualities of weight lifting.  It monitors data wirelessly through an accompanying app which allows you to share information with friends.  It also offers a mode for coaches to track their athletes in real-time during training.  It’s a revolution for sports and fitness.

Mike Lovas is the Chief Design Officer and a co-founder of PUSH, a fit-tech start-up based out of MaRS. He has a background in Biomedical Engineering and is just about finished a degree in Industrial Design from OCAD U. Mike has worked on a number of wearable tech projects, including designing an EEG monitor for concussion diagnostics for a medical company, and working on a system for teaching mindfulness to teens with mental illness for the Mobile Experience Lab at OCAD U.

Zaki Patel, Kiwi Wearables

Kiwi Wearable Technologies’ first product, the Kiwi Move, is a circuit board that contains motion, temperature, sound and altitude sensors, and connects wirelessly to the Kiwi online platform. Whether it is worn on a piece of clothing, in a strap or carried in a case, the Move is designed to make wearers’ lives happier, healthier and more convenient.  The Move seamlessly integrates with an easy-to-use mobile application which gives wearers the power to use a gesture to interact with a home entertainment or lighting system, tap the Move to control a household appliance, use the microphone to record a voice memo, leverage the motion sensors to detect, record and analyze their daily activities and so much more. The Kiwi Move is open by design and enables developers of all skill levels to build innovative wearable technology applications without having to manufacture hardware.

Venue & Address: 
OCAD U, 205 Richmond St. W., Room 7401
Keywords: 

Toronto Wearables Meetup 25

Wearable Sample
Wednesday, January 29, 2014 - 12:00am to 2:00am

Elizabeth Elliot, Textile Artist

Elizabeth (Libs) Elliott is a textile artist taking a forward-thinking approach to merging technology with traditional craft by using generative design to build handmade quilts. The importance of craftsmanship, respecting the past and looking to the future are all reflected in her work. She studied Material Art & Design at OCAD University in 1996 and continues to live and work in Toronto, Canada. Most recently, her work has been featured on Gizmodo.com. 

Rod Fitzsimmons Frey, GUILD Eyewear

Guild Eyewear is a Toronto-based company that provides you with the tools to create your own one-of-a-kind glasses and sunglasses.  Using custom in-browser software, customers can use a photo of their face along with specific measurements to customize the outer frame, lens, or arm of a pair of glasses.  Customers can also choose colours, patterns, hinges and lenses to create a pair of glasses that are uniquely their own.  Glasses frames are then CNC-milled, assembled and mounted with lenses, and then shipped directly to the customer.  

Venue & Address: 
OCAD U, 205 Richmond St. W. Room 7401
Keywords: 

Toronto Wearables Meetup 26

Wearable Sample
Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - 12:00am to 2:00am

Eric Boyd, Sensebridge

North Paw is a compass anklet created by Sensebridge that vibrates to tell the wearer which way is North.  It provides a haptic sense of direction.  Customers purchase the North Paw kits, which they have to solder together themselves.  From 2009 to 2010, Eric bought parts and stuffed kits for North Paw himself, in his bedroom.  In the fall of 2010, he began working with a Chinese company to have the kits made in China.  As with all manufacturing, the devil was in the details.  In this talk, Eric will discuss the process of having a product “made in China”. Eric Boyd is the founder of Sensebridge, a wearable electronics company., and is President of hacklab.to, a technology community space.  

Alex Haagaard, Designer/Artist

Alex Haagaard is a designer and artist based in Toronto. She received her M.Des. in Interdisciplinary Design from OCAD U in 2013. Alex works at the interstices of science and technology studies, industrial design and jewellery design. Her main research interests lie in the design of medical and assistive devices, in particular, participatory design approaches to engaging with the conflicting needs of the multiple user groups involved with medical things. She is currently continuing with research related to her M.Des. thesis project, and is planning to pursue a Ph.D. at Lancaster University, studying the epistemic and sociological implications of the situated boundary role of medical identification jewellery.

Venue & Address: 
OCAD U, 205 Richmond St. W., Room 7401
Keywords: 

Toronto Wearables Meetup 27

Wearable Sample
Tuesday, March 25, 2014 - 11:00pm to Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - 1:00am

Loretta Faveri, SoMo

Loretta Faveri is an emerging Canadian artist and designer working in wearable technology and textile arts. She is a recent graduate of OCAD University (OCADU) with a BDes in Material Art & Design.  With the assistance of OCADU's Social Body Lab and the Imagination Catalyst she founded Sonic Wear, a design studio that has developed a wireless, wearable sensor that generates real-time sound through body movement.  The device is called SoMo, and Sonic Wear is partnering with the Studio for Movement and Ballet Jorgen to use SoMo to develop a dynamic and integrated approach to teaching creative movement and music.

Robert Tu, MeU

Robert Tu is the founder and CEO of RTD which was established in June 2013. Robert started off his career as an electrical engineer after obtaining his Bachelor of Applied Science in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo. Robert was accepted into OCADU's Imagination Catalyst, and the MeU is the product of his time in the incubator.

MeU is a wearable LED display that can be put into clothing, bags and other wearable accessories. It is composed of a flexible LED matrix display and is controlled by a smartphone. There are several applications for MeU including safety, marketing and artistic performances. For safety applications MeU makes the wearer more visible at night which is ideal for cyclists, construction workers and police officers. MeU can also be used for creative purposes such as fashion shows, artist events and performance art.

Michael Vaughan, Lynxio

Mike Vaughan is the co-founder and product designer of Lynxio, a fully integrated electronic physiotherapy system that can be used to gather raw data from the body. He is a graduate of OCADU's Industrial Design program and was accepted into OCADU's Imagination Catalyst incubator to continue his research in physiotherapy and wearable technology.  Lynxio is the product of this research.

Lynxio works as a mobile application in combination with a knee brace with embedded electronics. The application provides physiotherapy patients with their exercise routines, progress reports, therapists notes, and information on specific exercises.  The data gathered from the movements and is then used to improve therapy results and reduce recovery time. All of the data is pushed to the patients physiotherapist who can then analyze the data and make better, more informed decisions about effective treatment.

Social Body Lab, Prosthetics of Being

The Social Body Lab is OCADU's research lab for wearable technologies.  The lab looks to the human body as a starting point from which to consider how humans interface with and relate to the world around them. Beyond the basic functionality of incorporating technology into clothing, the Social Body Lab focuses on meaningful and provocative interactions, questioning the relationship between humans and technology through working prototypes and fully manifested projects.

Social Body Lab research assistants will present completed prototypes for conceptual wearables commissioned by Intel Research, exploring the concept of "technology as prosthesis".  Expect wings that flap, hoods that deploy themselves, and textiles with morphing surface design.

Venue & Address: 
OCAD U, 205 Richmond St. W., Room 7401
Keywords: 

Toronto Wearables Meetup 29

Wearable Sample
Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - 11:00pm to Thursday, October 23, 2014 - 1:00am

Robert Tu of ‘MeU’

MeU is an open-source wearable LED display that you can put into any piece of clothing including shirts, dresses, jackets, and even bags.  It can display text and graphics all using your smartphone via Bluetooth.  MeU has many applications including  bike safety, fashion and information sharing.  

Robert Tu is the creator of MeU. He started off his career as an electrical engineer after obtaining his Bachelor of Applied Science in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo. He worked in the manufacturing field for a number of years before transitioning into information technology sales at IBM. After working at IBM for nearly five years he decided to pursue his passion in design and went back to school to OCAD University. He graduated with a Bachelor of Design in 2013 and has since founded MeU.

Venue & Address: 
OCAD U, 205 Richmond St. W., Room 7401
Keywords: 

Toronto Wearables Meetup 30

Wearable Sample
Thursday, November 20, 2014 - 12:00am to 2:00am

AmpGear, Rickee Charbonneau, OCADU Graduate Candidate

AmpGear is a 3D printed prosthetic hand with interchangeable attachments. It aims to completely shift the paradigm of limb replacement from the current, strictly bound, and nearly obsessive aim to replicate hand function, towards an open discourse of prostheses as accessory tools. This project involves the use of 3D printing technology to allow for the prosthetic hand and its attachments to be quickly and cheaply printed at home with a desktop 3D printer, such as the Makerbot, or through a local 3D printing service.

Rickee Charbonneau is a recent graduate of the Digital Futures undergraduate program at OCAD U. As a digital media designer, Rickee is especially interested in the use of new and upcoming technologies (ie. 3D printing, wearable technology, game design) to creatively solve challenges.  As a student in the Inclusive Design masters program at OCAD U, Rickee’s current research interest is in eHealth and mHealth applications and how they can be more inclusively designed to then be more broadly adopted by users.

Peak Skis, Ken Leung of Normative

Peak Skis is an R&D project at Normative focussing on the development of sensor-enhanced, network-ready skis capable of measuring various aspects of the skier’s performance. Ken will discuss the experience of developing both the physical ski prototypes and an accompanying mobile app for skiers, as well as the challenges around designing software which networks with sensor-enabled devices — such as determining what data is most meaningful to measure, how to integrate mobile app design with hardware design, and designing an experience that is ambient and seamless.

Ken is a multidisciplinary designer from Toronto with a passion for creating meaningful interactive experiences across a variety of mediums: from web and mobile software, to smart environments, wearable tech, and physical computing. He has worked for over 8 years as both a designer and software developer in a variety of corporate, healthcare, and academic research environments. He also studied Industrial Design and Digital Media at OCAD University, and holds a Psychology degree from the University of Toronto.  Ken currently works as an interaction designer at Normative, in Toronto.

Venue & Address: 
OCAD U, 205 Richmond St. W. Room 7402
Keywords: 

Toronto Wearables Meetup 31

Wearable Sample
Thursday, January 22, 2015 - 12:00am to 2:00am

sabel Pedersen, Decimal Lab, University of Ontario

Isabel Pedersen is a Canada Research Chair in Digital Life, Media, and Culture and is the director of the Decimal Lab at the University of Ontario where she also holds a position as an Associate Professor of Communication Studies. She is the author of Ready to Wear: A Rhetoric of Wearable Computers and Reality-Shifting Media, which explores how carryable, wearable, and implantable technologies impact the ways that people interact with one another and participate in culture. Her Decimal Lab is funded by a Canadian Foundation for Innovation Grant and she also holds a Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant for her research in reality-shifting media. Currently, she is researching critical dystopian film, transhumanist pondering, and brain interfaces that promise us futures that seem dramatically divergent from our current lives.

Jennifer Allison, The Art and Sole Academy

The Art and Sole Academy is the first shoemaking school in Canada to offer classes and workshops for those interested in learning the art of shoemaking. The Academy was founded by Canadian designer and shoemaker Jennifer Allison in 2014 with the goal in mind to make shoemaking accessible to a general audience.

Jennifer is originally from North Bay, Ontario and fell into the shoe industry unexpectedly after studying Fashion Design at Ryerson University in Toronto Canada. Upon graduation, she has had the opportunity to live and work throughout Canada, United States, South America, Asia and Europe fine tuning her shoemaking skills and gaining industry experience designing for various companies. Her work has been featured in many publications such as Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, In Style, Elle and Flare magazine to name a few and has been worn by many reputable icons such as, Cameron Diaz, Anne Hathaway, Blake Lively and Rihanna.

 

Venue & Address: 
OCAD U, 49 McCaul St.
Keywords: 

Toronto Wearables Meetup 32

Wearable Sample
Sunday, March 15, 2015 - 11:00pm to Monday, March 16, 2015 - 1:00am

Amira Routledge on Stilt Culture, Wearable Tech and Body Augmentation

In this talk Amira Routledge will be showing a collection of images and video of stilting cultures from different times and places around the world. Through this, she will look at the intersections of wearable tech, body augmentation and stilting. The images and stories from the history of stilting are inspiring, as are the stilt theatres of today involving mechanical and technical elements with giant costumes and puppetry. 

Amira Routledge is a multi-media artist working in theatre, circus, and visual arts. She has a BFA in Theatre from the University of Victoria and moved to Toronto in 2003, when she began a career as a costume and set designer as well as a production artist. In 2010 Amira dove into the creation of community-engaged outdoor theatre and puppetry with Clay & Paper Theatre, finding her passion for circus and theatre converging there. Raised on dance classes then exposed to circus and flow arts in the early 2000's, Amira came into the life of a professional stilt performer from the ground up; through friends, community "circus jams", and local vaudeville cabaret culture. Since launching a circus troupe in 2008, an outdoor theatre company in 2012, and her own company "Stiltcore" in 2014, Amira is poised to produce exciting new stilt theatre in Toronto.  

Clement Zhou of FuelWear

FuelWear Smart Apparel Inc. designs and sells intelligent winter clothing with active heat regulation. FuelWear’s first product- the Flame Baselayer showed the world that clothing can be intelligent too and you don’t have to sacrifice warmth for fashion or an active lifestyle. FuelWear will continue challenging the traditional way of thinking clothes and release more intelligent active products that power your winter experience without compromises. Clement Zhou studies Energy Systems in Engineering Science at University of Toronto. Clement is currently using his business minor towards growing FuelWear's operation as the CEO of the company.

Venue & Address: 
OCAD U, 49 McCaul St.
Keywords: 

Pages