Ariana is a student and avid pop music fan who happens to be blind. Her 21st century accessories enable her to navigate easily through her native Rome—a city of perennial congestion.

Ariana's earrings contain microphones and speakers. She can use them as a cellular phone to access long-range verbal directions and addresses (her arm piece is equipped with GPS), or she can use them as a short term direction-finder. The speakers emit a tone or click that sounds as if it is coming from the direction she needs to go in. All she needs to do is "follow the sound-crumbs" to get where she is going.

Her ring has optical character recognition that scans for characters and translates then into Braille that can be read with a finger or thumb. Ariana can read the newspaper on the bus, check the pricetag of a new sweater, and find that great album she's been hearing for weeks on the radio.

Her shoes reduce stress on her feet with shock absorbency technology that makes constant dynamic adjustments for various terrains and speeds.

All three of these accessories are linked to and controlled by the molded CPU on Ariana's arm. Here she can input information and queries (When is that Pearl Jam concert? And where's the nearest ticket office?) and choose output preferences (verbal, Braille, or vibration). Ariana is always ready to roll!

Designers
Nanae Hashimoto, Ai Mizuno, and Seonhyu Na
Technology Collaborators
Brad Rhodes

Recycle, Reuse, and Reduce! These two stunning outfits put a new twist on the old slogan. They make use of old technology in a brand-new way. Rakel and Bettina have teamed up to cover both the street scene and the party circuit in Mexico City with ensembles that pick up where planned obsolescence leaves off. Their two-woman crusade to turn technological waste products into fashion became Disk-in Designs after a hot rock star was featured wearing their dresses in a Rolling Stone cover shoot. Winning the world over takes a lot of "disk drive" but they've got gigabits of it in these outfits! Look for their new belt line "Diskin-Waist."

Designer
Lynn Johnson

Porsangeren Fjord, Norway. Geologist Lance Smith has two days of light left to explore the Fjord for deposits of precious minerals. His chameleon coat, mole gloves, sensor sneakers and VR glasses help him beat his deadline. The coat is made of a chameleon material that uses microencapsulated electrophoretic ink to change color and blend with its background, helping Lance escape detection by rival mineral collectors. The coat also provides temperature regulation. Lance's glasses are equipped with a laser range-finder, a compass, and differential GPS, all of which allow him to generate made-to-order satellite images of the site. Coupled with digital photographic images, the satellite images construct a "virtual reality" of a particularly inaccessible ledge.

Since much of what Lance is searching for is under the earth, his boots have sensors that identify the presence of a particular mineral by glowing in different colors. Once he knows where to dig, his mole-gloves, equipped with a searchlight and retractable shovel-fingers, help him get to the mineral. A built-in spectrometer displays the identifying information on a wrist-screen. The outfit is powered by a battery cell fed by piezoelectric polymers in his pants.

Lance keeps in touch with his wife Vikki, a journalist in Hong Kong, through their reciprocating wedding rings. The rings transmit biosignals via satellite to any location on the globe.

Designers
Misa Harada, Ryo Hihara, Nao Muramatsu, keiko Minomo, and Junko Ito
Technology Collaborator
Thad Starner

Hong Kong, October 15, 2008. The Flaming Dragon lived up to its name today when a massive blaze reduced this popular restaurant to coals. On-the-scene journalist Vikki Starr was a bit of a heroine. Thanks to her ocu-scan glasses she was able to relay what she saw to her satellite link, alerting the Hong Kong firefighters that reinforcements were needed. Back-up arrived in time to quench the blaze and save the three large apartment buildings that abutted The Flaming Dragon. Vikki's glasses transmit what she sees to her television station for virtual broadcasting.

From conflagration to boardroom, Vikki always looks smart in her "suitable" ensemble. Her dress is able to shift its pattern and colors because the fabric is pigmented with thermochromic ink.

Though Vikki is busy snooping the latest scoop in Hong Kong and mothering her two children, she misses her husband Lance, a geologist in Norway. She's glad for their reciprocating wedding rings that link them through GPS and biorhythm feedback. When her editor asks her to cover an important mineral find in Norway, Vikki enters Lance's location in her Secretary Watch and reserves plane tickets for Porsangeren.

Designers
Nao Muramatsu, Junko Ito, Keiko Minomo, Misa Harada, and Ryo Hihara

Before heading out to the day's triumphs and disasters, journalist Vikki Starr says good-bye to her two precocious children, Sam and Samantha, as they leave for school. When Vikki herself went to elementary school, she sometimes had to carry twenty-five pounds of schoolbooks. By contrast, Sam and Samantha's SchoolTools are light weight, compact, and even a bit of fun!

They both wear Beelug backpacks made of thermocompressed polyurethane, with big central pockets for lunches and personal belongings and small transparent pockets for treasures like toys or shells. The Beelug has autoforming straps that distribute the weight of the pack evenly and fit snuggly on even the wriggliest kids. A large bottom pocket holds the children's most useful tool, the Teechoo Teaching Assistant. A scholastic computer made entirely from flexible technologies, the Teechoo has a roll-out screen with a viewing zone and a writing zone that is sensitive to the magnetic stylus. Handwriting recognition and a continuous learning function allow the Teechoo to prompt children if they have made a mistake. Teechoo never gives away the answers; it helps children discover the answers for themselves. When they are finished, Sam and Samantha push the bright button on top, and the screen rolls up into the case.

The Teechoo can exchange data with other computer technologies, including the children's shoes and clothes. Sam and Samantha's clothes harness heat energy, and their shoes recycle mechanical energy into electricity. These energy sources are augmented by batteries in their backpacks that recharge when the kids are in a magnetic induction zone. Their clothes and backpacks illuminate in the dark. Samantha sports a pair of AutoBraid clips and Sam wears a SmartWatch. When she waves good-bye, Vikki knows that her children will have a safe, productive, and fun-filled day.

Designers
Hugo Cailleton and Stephane Froment

Polka Dot Patty loves to dance. Her velcro dress is styled from the '60's of the previous century, and she can change the color of her dots whenever she wants. Patty's goal is to dance all the way across China in the next ten years. She makes music wherever she goes because her shoes create music as she dances. Sensors in her dancing shoes measure fourteen different parameters--including bend, pressure, tilt, shock, range, height, orientation, and angular rate. Her music is transmitted wirelessly, and her shoes were developed by Joe Paradiso and his team with musical software by Kai-Yuh Hsiao.

Designer
Derek Nye Lockwood
Technology Collaborator
Joe Paradiso and Kai-Yuh Hsiao