Australian IT: Like the promise of the paperless office, wearable electronics - specifically gadgets integrated into clothing for ease of movement - is a concept that has been long hyped but not really delivered until now.
Rod Tanks of Smart Fabrics is looking for a market for wearable electronics. In many ways, that's surprising. At first glance, particularly in an era when mobility is prized and just about everyone seems to be armed with personal music players and mobile phones when they venture out on the streets, it would seem the notion is a sound one.
Every year, the world's major consumer electronics exhibitions showcase apparel with built-in gadgetry and equipment that can be used to adorn various parts of the body, and predictions are made that wearable electronics is a market set to take off.
Recent Consumer Electronics Shows in Las Vegas, for example, have shown off micro LED-infused clothing, T-shirts that light up when they detect wireless hotspots, and luminous bedclothes suitable for reading by.
This year, CES had a range of exploding and vibrating gamer vests, with one even sending a puff of air into your ear when a virtual enemy mortar whistled past your head.
In recent years, fashion houses such as Dolce and Gabbana, Louis Vuitton and Prada have been quick to form alliances with electronics (and particularly phone) manufacturers to cross-market their products. Yet we still seem as far away as ever from the time when our favourite gadgets become commonly integrated with our clothing.
Rod Tanks, the managing director of Smart Fabrics Australia, one of the few local companies dedicated to the concept of wearable electronics, is confident the concept's time will come, but it still faces challenges, he says.
"The market in general will take off," he says. "Cast your mind back to the first mobile phones, which were like carrying bricks around, and there were probably only about half a dozen streets in Sydney where they could work.
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