The Video
Earlier this month, I pointed to TshirtOS, the smart t-shirt designed by CuteCircuit and sponsored by Ballantine’s (yup, the whiskey company) and included a video of the shirt in action. They’ve posted a new video which takes a little dramatic licence in order to remind us that in the right hands — or the very, very wrong ones — technology can be a gateway to adventure:
In case you don’t believe that a gadget in the right hands can turn an ordinary night out into an extraordinary one, allow me to present some proof starring Yours Truly in The Best Accordion Picture Ever:
Naturally, with either TshirtOS or an accordion, your mileage will vary.
The T-shirt’s Tech Specs
Here are TshirtOS’ tech specs, straight from the folks at CuteCircuit:
LED Screen resolution
The LED Screen has a resolution of 1024 pixels, spaced 1cm apart, in a 32 by 32 pixel grid embedded into the fabric of the t-shirt. Each pixel is RGB (Red Green Blue) to make a full colour display. The LEDs used are ultra thin (like a sheet of paper), the brightest full colour discreet LEDs in the world at this thinness and only 2 by 2 mm wide. The screen is controlled by 32 ultra thin microprocessors, managing the screen control software “Q” by CuteCircuit.
Camera
The camera is an Omnivision Camera Cube. The Camera Cube combines the full functionality of a single chip image sensor, embedded processor and wafer- level optics in one compact, small-profile package. Boasting the industry’s smallest footprint and z-height (2.5 x 2.9 x 2.5 mm), it is ideal for today’s ultra-slim applications, such as wearable technology. Unlike traditional camera module designs that combine image sensors and lenses in a barrel, OmniVision devices are assembled using wafer level alignment tools. The lens can be placed directly onto chip scale packaged (CSP) image sensors, which eliminates the need for flex cables and interposers. Elimination of image contamination issues such as fixed pattern noise, smearing, and blooming produces a clean, fully stable colour image, which in the case of the tshirtOS is scaled down to 32 by 32 pixels to be displayed.
Accelerometer
This is a small, thin, low power, 3-axis accelerometer with high resolution up to ±16 g. It detects a person’s jumping motion (the momentary absence of gravity or free fall detection) and activates animations on the tshirtOS. This accelerometer is the latest generation triple-axis, hi resolution digital, micro mechanical inertial sensor.
Headphone Jack
This is a generic 3-poles stereo jack. We have 2 on tshirtOS – one for the headphone and the second for a headset/ microphone option. The headphone jacks fit all types of headphones.
Circuit board and processors
The Brain circuit is an ultra slim PCB that snaps into the tshirtOS hub to provide it with BlueTooth capability. The Bluetooth is CE and FCC certified, with an integrated micro-antenna, and it supports both the HFP, SPP, and A2DP profiles for hands-free and serial port use. The Brain is chargeable via USB simply by plugging it into a computer USB port, and the tiny Li-Po battery recharges in about 1 hour. The accelerometer and the micro- controller reside in the Brain. The micro controller controls the LED screen. We have 2 versions of the Brain where at the heart of the system is either an 8-bit processor from ATMEL or a 32-bit ARM Cortex processor, the latest ultra- powerful and energy efficient ARM processor, also from ATMEL.
iPhone and iOS support
The application will only be supported on iPhone4S and iOS5+ in its initial release.
Register Your Interest
I’d love to get my hands on one of these and both hack on it and take it out on the town, and I suspect you might too. If TshirtOS sounds appealing, go ahead and register at tshirtos.com!