Alma is a poet. Her favorite haunts are the literary cafes in her home town Budapest. There she and other poets of the new millenium present their work to intimate audiences. When she performs she wears clothing made from empathic fabric. The electrodes woven into this fabric detect Alma's galvanic skin response, which is directly associated with her emotional arousal. The electrodes also analyze her heart rate, revealing her attraction and revulsion to the topics of her poetry. When the projections on Alma's garment light up, she is angry. When they become round, she is feeling particularly sensitive. When they swing, she is happy.

Designers
Tamae Hirokawa and Yoshiyuki Miyamae

Technology Collaborators
Jennifer Healey and Brad Rhodes

A professional violinist constantly on tour, Yelena feels comfortable and looks fashionable everywhere she goes in this "Living Knit" pairing of bodysuit and dress. The biomorphic quality of the knits prompts us to call them 'living knits' although their basis is technological.

The bodysuit uses biosensors to respond to human thermographic patterns with changing colors and textures. In icy Oslo, the conductive yarns form a knit that is tightly condensed, trapping heat and keeping Yelena warm, but when the tour arrives in Athens, the knit relaxes and allows air to ventilate the garment. The overdress is also knitted with conductive and responsive yarns and changes shape and color according to the demands of the moment.

The three styles you see here, and many more, will be available in a single garment—a limitless knit. For a person on the move, the Living Knit is a great way to economize on luggage. Yelena used to pack for a variety of situations and climates; now she only needs this! She often finds it useful to eliminate bulk when traveling by condensing the knit into a shorter, shift-like shape. On the other hand, for a concert she wants a clean, elegant line, and lets the knit relax for a swinging, sophisticated feel.

Designers
Manami Fujishige, Reiko Komiyama, and Rika Niikura

Josef may be a master chef, but he's never been a master at organization—until now. He runs the colossal kitchen at the Hotel Carrera in Punta Arenas, Chile, where tonight's menu features dishes from around the globe. How does he keep the tempura out of the sopa de palmetto? with his OmniChef uniform.

This coat and eyepiece ensemble is the nucleus of a system that allows Josef to keep an eagle-eye on his entire culinary enterprise. Orders from the waiters' keypads are relayed by infra-red technology to a computer in the kitchen. With his eyepiece, Josef can examine the orders as they come in, and direct the flow of orders to his various chefs with the keyboard in his armband. With the touch of a button in the armband, he can focus on images from strategically placed video cameras in the corners of the kitchen, or check on the status of the grills, refrigerated pantries, or ovens. Under the electronic eye of Chef Josef, no sauce is ever burned! His chest piece holds a command center for automated parts of the kitchen that Josef can control remotely while he is tasting a dish or inspecting the pastry batter. Josef can communicate his wishes instantly to any person in the kitchen.

With the OmniChef system, even the preparation of a complicated meal becomes seamlessly efficient and well coordinated. The guests are too busy exclaiming over their exquisite meals to notice this efficiency.

Designers
Shoji Babazono, Midori Karsukou, and Misun Zen

On his way to the Antarctic, Nikolai is stopping over in Punta Arenas, the southernmost city in Chile, to rendezvous with another journalist, Zoey. They have won National Science Foundation grants to study the Antarctic and to report on the environmental science being conducted there.

In extreme situations like the bone-chilling cold and frequent storms of the Antarctic, Nikolai's HERMES (Hermetic Equipment for Reports and Movies in Extreme Situations) will keep the broadcasts coming. His suit and three "Technical Centers" form a system with which he can enter extreme situations, record video and sound, edit his piece, and broadcast from any position on the globe. The suit, which is thermo-regulated, captures energy as Nikolai walks. It also features a microphone in the collar, a gyroscopic mouse in one of the gloves, and sensors that monitor his physiology.

The helmet is one technical center that contains a movable visor with an auto-focus camera and screen. It is reinforced for protection and holds a light, a solar cell, and two external microphones. The rucksack is another technical center, and it holds a DVD Rom and a CPU to record footage and edit it. It also houses a modem and satellite link. The final technical center is the editing table that pops out from the chest piece. Nikolai edits his report before broadcasting it directly from the South Pole.

Designers
Alexandre Rossi, Nicolas Bertoldi, and Sébastien Viron

Zoey is lunching in the excellent dining room of the Hotel Carrera in Punta Arenas, Chile, when her colleague Nikolai arrives. They will leave tomorrow for the Antarctic to begin their National Science Foundation study grant. Zoey packs a little lighter than Nikolai because she will be doing an indoor investigation of the psychological pressures experienced by Antarctica's rotating population of scientists and adventurers. She has a monocle with a display, speaker, and microphone. Her body pack contains a camera, two LCD displays, and GPS. Her gloves house another camera and a keyboard. Nikolai doesn't know it yet, but she is recording his arrival.

Designer
Zoey Zebedee

Technology Collaborators
Joseph Kaye and Jack Driscoll