While wearable gadgets tend to be over the top and sometimes garish, this “printing dress” by Microsoft is rather chic and pretty classy and if we did not know any better, we would have probably figured this to be just a regular dress.
Created by Microsoft Research’s Asta Roseway and Xbox’s Sheridan Martin Small, the dress won Best Concept and Best in Show at the 15th annual International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC) in San Francisco this June, which was pretty much the last award anyone expected Microsoft to win.
Now what makes it considered as a wearable computer is the fact that it comes with a keyboard, which is sewn into the bodice out of old fashioned typewriter inspired-keys, and a skirt that has the ability to display the wearer’s Twitter updates which is displayed on the skirt through the use of a projector and a laptop.
We’re guessing that due to all the additional hardware required to make the dress work, it’s not exactly the most practical dress. In fact the prototype was not made to be worn, but rather it was made to explore the boundaries between fashion and wearable technology. Based on looks alone I’d have to say that both the ladies did a fine job and hopefully one day they’ll find a way to shrink down the hardware to make the dress wearable.