Musical Jacket Project

Rehmi Post, Maggie Orth, Emily Cooper, Josh Strickon,

Josh Smith and Professor Tod Machover

Levi's Musical Jean Jacket

Wash and Wearable: A Musical Jacket

If you think that the latest breakthrough in clothing is no-iron cotton...think again.

Researchers at the Media Laboratory are redefining what our clothing can do for us, developing innovative ways to merge computing "seamlessly" into our everyday shirts, shoes, or eyeglasses.

A first example is the Musical Jacket--a Levi's jacket that has been transformed into a musical instrument, complete with keyboard, synthesizer, and speakers, by students in the Opera of the Future and Physics and Media groups at the Lab.

The Musical Jacket looks like any other denim jacket, with an added decorative element: an embroidered keypad over the left pocket. This keyboard, developed by Interval Fellow Rehmi Post, graduate student Maggie Orth, and undergraduate researcher Emily Cooper, is sewn from mildly conductive thread. When it's touched, it sends a signal to another processor, which in turn runs a MIDI synthesizer, built by Motorola Fellow Josh Smith and graduate student Josh Strickon. Sound is projected through mini-speakers in the jacket's pockets. The whole setup weighs less than one pound, with most of that weight coming from batteries and speaker cases.

Post, who is studying with Neil Gershenfeld in the Physics and Media group, is looking into a range of techniques for embedding circuitry into fabric. "The textiles we're using are all commercially available. In fact, decorative fabric woven with metallic threads has been made in India for centuries."

"What's so great about this," says Orth, "is that we're maintaining the tactile and material properties that we've come to expect from everyday clothing," says Orth, who along with Cooper, is working with Tod Machover in the Lab's Opera of the Future group

For students, this means the jacket can be wadded up and stuffed in a backpack. And yes, for parents, if you unclip the speakers, batteries, and synthesizer, it can even be washed.

MIDI "Boat" Synthesizer Board

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