Jan 27 2011
The New York University has developed two sweatshirts that will alter the color in a polluted environment. Designed by Nien Lam and Sue Ngo, the sweatshirt has lungs printed on it in pink.
When a person wearing it comes in contact with polluted air, the lungs show blue veins. They were designed at a class on wearable technologies held on interpersonal communications at the University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Ngo, aged 27, hailing from Fort Greene, Brooklyn, commented that they wanted to create something that would remind the wearer how polluted the environment is, and that such pollutants have a devastating effect on our insides.
The sweatshirt has been fitted with a dime-sized carbon monoxide sensor that can register pollution resulting from gas emissions in vehicles, smoke emitted by factories and also passive smoking. It is placed on a micro-controller that transmits electrical currents across the shirt and heating wires beneath the lungs or heart. The heart or the lungs in the garment are fabricated from thermochromic material that alters the color when the temperature rises, revealing blue veins when the sensor comes in contact with toxins present in the air. Consumption of alcoholic beverages will alter the color of the liver.
Source: http://www.nyu.edu/