Sponsored message
Logged in as
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
 — 
See All Episodes
Subscribe

Hey, LA listener!

Download our app for the optimal streaming experience

Apple Store logo Google play logo
  • Listen Now Playing Listen
  • Listen Now Playing Listen
Off-Ramp

5 cool 'wearable' prototypes that might be the next Google Glass

By Off-Ramp Staff
Published May 14, 2014
Patt Morrison, eat your heart heart out. This is Sangli Li's wearable. The fans protect the wearer by responding to light and noise.
Patt Morrison, eat your heart heart out. This is Sangli Li's wearable. The fans protect the wearer by responding to light and noise.
(
Sangli Li
)
Art Center College of Design student Sangli Li designed a hat that responds to light and noise.
Art Center College of Design student Sangli Li designed a hat that responds to light and noise.
(
John Rabe
)
Ji Won Jun wears her Data Vaporizer
Ji Won Jun wears her Data Vaporizer
(
Ji Won Jun
)
Art Center College of Design student Ji Won Jun, inventor of the Data Vaporizer.
Art Center College of Design student Ji Won Jun, inventor of the Data Vaporizer.
(
John Rabe
)
Art Center College of Design grad student Marcus Guttenplan co-created a prototype for devices that might help and hinder data theft and pickpockets.
Art Center College of Design grad student Marcus Guttenplan co-created a prototype for devices that might help and hinder data theft and pickpockets.
(
John Rabe
)
Art Center College of Design students Zoe Padgett and Gerardo Guerrero. Gerardo wears the prototype top, which inflates when the wearer is quiet, and deflates when he's speaking.
Art Center College of Design students Zoe Padgett and Gerardo Guerrero. Gerardo wears the prototype top, which inflates when the wearer is quiet, and deflates when he's speaking.
(
John Rabe
)
Kristina Ortega and Jenny Rodenhouse and prototype examples from their Pop-Up Sensor Nail Salon.
Kristina Ortega and Jenny Rodenhouse and prototype examples from their Pop-Up Sensor Nail Salon.
(
John Rabe
)
Art Center College of Design professor Phil van Allen.
Art Center College of Design professor Phil van Allen.
(
John Rabe
)

About the Show

Over 11 years and 570 episodes, John Rabe and Team Off-Ramp scoured SoCal for the people, places, and ideas whose stories needed to be told, and the show became a love-letter to Los Angeles. Now, John is sharing selections from the Off-Ramp vault to help you explore this imperfect paradise.

Funding provided by:

Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Listen 6:39
5 cool 'wearable' prototypes that might be the next Google Glass

As wearable tech goes, Google Glass is old hat. What you expect from Off-Ramp is the Next Big Thing — perhaps a hat that protects you from paparazzi and boom boxes, or a nail appliqué that doubles as a flashlight — so I spent Thursday morning at Art Center College of Design, where teams of of Media Design MFA students unveiled their wearable prototypes.

Professor Philip van Allen gave the assignment:



"The point is to explore what the potential of wearables is. Not for tomorrow but say 5-10 years from now. Where can we go, where can we develop the technology, design, and interaction to make things that are truly interesting for people?"

One of the most fully developed prototypes was Sangli Li's quite fashionable hat, which uses sensors to protect the wearer from light and sound.

Watch Sangli Li's hat in action

Other projects include:

  • A "Data Vaporizer," which emits a gas that erases the data on a would-be hacker's mobile devices.
  • A puffy suit that mirrors the wearer's pensiveness or pomposity.
  • Tiny fingernail add-ons that take the current nail sculpture concept one step further by allowing micro electronics to be attached to the surface of the nail.

Professor van Allen says, "the kinds of projects that our students are working on are probably a few years out, but we're about to go to Intel to share with their people the projects that were done here," so you might see some of these concepts put into play. So watch this space."

Credits