WEBVTT - Fashion Sensors 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.200 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:14.480 Forward Thinking. He there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:16.880 podcast that looks at the future. He says. Black clothes, 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.479 white shoes, black hat, Cadillac. I'm Jonathan Strickland, I'm Lauren Vocalbon, 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:24.000 and I'm Joe McCormick. And you know, clothes make the 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:30.280 person right, well just dead stairs. Okay, I realize I'm 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:33.839 saying here in a white T shirt and blue jeans. Well, 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:37.280 without clothes, it's hard to get people to take you seriously. 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:41.560 Even with clothes, it's difficult, you know, if you're giving 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:46.279 a Nobel Prize recipient lecture generally on this planet. Yes, 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:47.800 I've heard that it works out kind of okay on 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:50.360 Beta's at but I think that that's that's about that's 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:54.720 about it nice nice, Well, actually, though, the dumb thing is, 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:56.800 if you're a dog, you can get away with it 0:00:57.040 --> 0:00:59.360 like nobody cares, unless you're goofy, in which case you 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.000 have to wear It's harder to be taken seriously as 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:04.120 a dog if you're wearing clothes. I think, well, what 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:06.840 would you take more seriously a dog or a person 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:08.800 who's naked? Okay, you know what, I'm going to just 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.959 go ahead and derail this hypothetical conversation we're having so 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:14.480 we can get onto the topic, which is the future 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.840 of clothing. Yeah, you know, all the things in our 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:22.160 environment have been getting upgraded by technology. So you used 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.880 to have like a notebook and a pencil. I guess 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:30.000 now some people still use those, but that tablet and 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:35.480 now we've got iPad apps that that that directly duplicate 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:39.520 a notebook and a pencil. Yeah, I guess you used 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:42.840 to have like a yelling at people, but now you 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:45.560 have a telephone or smart so now you can yell 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:47.360 at people over the phone. Yeah, you can yell at 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:51.720 people who are farther away that normally your voice wouldn't carry. Yes, 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:53.560 you can actually yell at people in space and they 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:57.720 could hear you. But it's basically other than some, you know, 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:01.279 ways of making them a little comp or maybe clothes 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:03.400 are about the same as they've been for a hundred 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.320 years or sure. Most of the improvements in them, I 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:08.880 mean have been a little bit in like zipper technology, 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:14.600 I suppose, but synthetics, but mostly in the manufacturing of them, 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:18.399 making them cheaper and more widely available in different styles, right, Yeah, 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:20.560 i'd say that we could definitely say like the production 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:22.880 of clothing has gotten a lot more high tech, but 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.480 maybe not necessarily like for the utility of the user, 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.040 the wear or the owner, whatever you'd call it. Yeah, 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:31.560 there only been a few technologies I would say that 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:34.840 have really advanced clothing. I mean, we could look at 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:39.000 specific industries and see examples, but they aren't for your 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:42.480 general consumer use. Like firefighters, for example, have clothing that 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:46.239 have and or astronauts have clothing that have much more, 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:53.160 uh important applications besides just covering the person. But those 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:56.040 are not things that translate to everyday clothes that you 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:57.960 and I would write. I mean, I guess you've got like, 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:00.640 I don't know, gortex or whatever. Sure, you've got some 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.120 stuff that's you know, maybe a little less flammable or 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:07.560 maybe it's hydrophobic or even oleophobic. I'll talk some more 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.200 about that in a little bit. I mean, you know, 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:13.280 for consumers, we've got like anti wrinkle material, sure, but 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:15.680 it's not I mean, it doesn't iron it. I think 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.600 I think the I think the most high tech piece 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.359 of clothing I have is actually, you know, I've got 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:25.760 some of gloves that have the little conductance um fingertips ys. 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:27.480 So that way, it's you can use a capacity of 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:30.200 touch screen and be able to actually manipulate it without 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:31.960 having to take your gloves off, which you know when 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:34.639 it starts getting cold. Is nice, especially since we all 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.280 are using phones that don't have physical buttons anymore. So, 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:40.160 or at least I am. So it means I need 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:42.560 to have something that can interact with the screen. That's interesting. 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:45.560 It's kind of specialty, but that's cool. Yeah, there's the 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:49.200 power glove. Okay, that's it's not an article of clothing. 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.920 That's a video game peripherals. The glove, isn't it. It 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:55.360 is a wearable It is wearable computing. I'll give you that. 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:57.640 I mean, you wouldn't turn one down if you were 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:00.720 out in the cold, right. I don't think a power 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:06.360 glove would fit me anymore anyway. What's the future of clothing, Jonathan, Well, 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:08.720 there's a there's a lot of different ways of looking 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:10.320 at this, and one of the things we want to 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:13.040 talk about was wearable computing. So that you know, the 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:15.920 power glove fits right in there in a sense, fits 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:18.839 in so it's like a computer that instead of putting 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.159 on your desk you put on your naked body. It's 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.200 a little bit of an oversimplification, but okay, you know, 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.680 I usually think of this in two major categories. I 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:32.080 think of passive systems and active systems. So a passive 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:36.600 system is clothing that has something that ends up taking 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:40.839 in information about either you or your environment and then 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:45.360 sending that in some way to a collection point, usually 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.360 like an app of some sort, where you can look 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.440 at that data and do something meaningful with it. Active 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:55.000 systems are ones that not only can interpret information about 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:57.839 the environment or say the person who's wearing them, but 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.960 actually make actual change just you, change in some way 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.719 so that it is reacting to that information as opposed 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:09.240 to just sending it to you. So an example there, 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:12.200 let's we'll go science fiction. Ey, Okay, an example there 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.960 might be that a passive system might let you know 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:18.360 how fast your heart is beating, and could be really 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.880 useful if you are doing something that's fitness related or 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.559 health related or as we talked about in our stress video. 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:27.560 You know, one of the things about stress is you 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:32.039 don't always realize yourself when you're stressed. Although I don't know, 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:35.200 I don't know if I would be less stressed. If 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.080 my shirt was telling me that I was stressing out, well, 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:40.520 I mean, it might be helpful for your your shirt 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:43.520 to remind you, like, hey, I'm taking some galvanic skin 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:46.640 conductance readings and um, you need to chill for a bit. 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:51.880 Maybe maybe maybe go outside do some yoga. I don't know, man, 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:53.880 now I'm stressed out, all right. But an active system 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:57.320 might be something more science fiction. Ye. Like, an example 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.160 that I gave before we came into the podcast room was, 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:03.720 you know, everyone's the first thing we thought of when 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.000 we thought of science fiction clothing, which is back to 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:08.800 the future, to where Marty McFly has the shoes that 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:12.120 automatically adjust his feet and the jacket that automatically adjust 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:15.440 to his build and will even dry itself off once 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.160 it gets wet, that kind of thing. And while the 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:22.120 active side is probably you know, there's not that many 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.040 examples we can point to in the real world or 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:27.120 even in in like prototype stages right now, there's a 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:30.160 lot going on with the passive side. And some of 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:34.159 this wearable computing takes the form of not like clothing, 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.360 not like shirts and pants and shoes and that kind 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:38.600 of thing, but stuff like a wrist bands, you know 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.560 the fitness band bands that we've talked about in the past. Um, 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:45.640 Google Glass is another great example where it's this wearable 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.160 computer that again is not I mean, if you've seen one, 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:51.760 you know it's not gonna be a fashion statement for 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:55.680 a while. Probably probably they're they're working towards it. Yeah, 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:57.520 I hear the next version is going to be a 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:00.800 little more streamlined U and core style. Just I'll be 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:04.120 O G walking around with mine. That's original Google glass 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:06.120 and and and these days a lot of the other 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:08.720 little especially fitness trackers, are coming in more and more 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.680 aesthetic versions because they realized that some people don't want 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:16.480 to look like they're from the nineteen eighties and right right, 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:20.520 and we're starting to see some interesting, uh sort of 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:25.120 I would say in the lab uses of of computing 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:29.000 and fabrics or computing and clothing. Actually got to take 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:33.760 a tour of a fabric computing lab at Georgia Tech 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:35.920 a few years ago, and that was really interesting seeing 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.560 how they were using conductive thread woven through materials so 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:43.920 that they could allow electricity to pass through the material 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:48.600 and use it for various purposes. Now we're still on 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:51.080 the very beginning stages of this kind of stuff too, 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:52.960 but you could see further down the line how that 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.480 could become useful. Uh. Some of the ones that I've 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:58.080 I've seen that are really interesting to me that again 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:00.120 are not necessarily the type of clothes that you're going 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.640 to wear for everyday use. One was the key glove, 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:09.520 which is a wearable, wireless, open source input device. So 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:11.880 think of it as an alternative to like a keyboard 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:13.920 or a track pad. It's a glove that you would 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:16.480 fit over one hand, and it's got all these different 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:21.080 sensors all along the fingers and the palm and uh 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.120 of the of the actual glove that you can use 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:25.680 to type stuff out, So every single joint of your 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:28.080 finger would be a different letter and you could Uh. 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:31.080 It's kind of laid out the way a stenographer's keyboard 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:33.439 is laid out, so that the the letters that are 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.760 most frequently used are a group together and uh and 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:39.960 the easiest places theoretically for most people to reach with 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:44.000 using one hand. So this could be a useful tool 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:47.599 for people who have mobility issues. It could be UM. 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:50.040 They've even added some haptic feedback to it so that 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.680 people who are visually impaired can use it. Understand what's 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:56.000 going on. What I was thinking was just that you 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:58.320 could be typing a document while you're out taking a 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.400 walk or on the trained or something and is sending 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:03.679 text without having to really take your hand off the 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.160 steering wheel. This is this has gotten, you know, well 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:08.880 beyond that because the videos I saw, even though the 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.199 the glove itself looked pretty primitive, I mean it was 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:14.640 fairly clunky, although it was an earlier build as well. 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:17.760 They explained in the video or in the text beneath 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:20.600 the video that in fact there are later versions that 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.560 are a little more streamlined. But because the haptic feedback, 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:26.800 you can even have things where you're manipulating virtual objects 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.720 and have the feedback to the gloves, so you know 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:32.880 when you're going too far. Uh. It can actually track 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.560 complete three access movement with your hands, so it can detect, 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:38.960 you know, when you rotate your wrist or cool, so 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:40.920 like like moving a little bit closer to to you know, 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:46.600 Tony Stark's Iron Man movie series, the three dimensional hologram, right, Yeah. 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:49.079 Instead of using cameras to track your movement, this is 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:54.000 actually using wires and some gyroscopes and accelerometers things like that, 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:56.440 and uh, and again, it was talking about how this 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:58.640 could be a great input device for people who have 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.079 either some sort of visual in pairman or perhaps they 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:03.480 have only the use of one arm, something like that. 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:07.240 Um is really interesting. Again, not the kind of clothing 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:08.920 that you and I would wear on a on an 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.439 everyday basis, but a really cool example of wearable computers. 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:16.640 Another really neat one was called tacit, and this is 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:20.120 a wrist mounted device that senses objects that are somewhere 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:24.200 between an inch away and ten feet away. So it's 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:27.600 designed to help people with who have well First, it 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:29.600 was designed to be part of a video game. The 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:31.640 idea that the guy had was, what if I created 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:33.320 a video game that was kind of like those old 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:35.720 text adventures where you would say things like go north, 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:40.000 you know, go west, open door, but it detects when 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.800 a grew is near exactly. That's in fact, he actually 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:48.559 says that in his blog about about tacit. He's like, 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.240 there's a grew in the room to the south. Um 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.280 It's it really does bring out the Zork reference. But anyway, 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:57.600 that the idea he had was that what if you 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.480 could go through a virtual maze and this particular wrist 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:04.160 mounted device would alert you when you were coming close 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:05.800 to a wall in the virtual maze by giving you 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:09.240 haptic feedback, you know, a little motor vibrating. And now, 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:12.559 originally he developed a headband that he wore, and he 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:14.160 said that it was effective. And he got to the 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:15.679 point where he thought, wait a minute, what if I, 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:20.160 instead of using this to manipulate UH an avatar through 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.320 a virtual environment, what if I used some form of 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:27.240 sensor that could detect the presence of an obstacle in 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.800 front of me, perhaps using something like ultrasound or some 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:33.800 other form of sensor like an optical sensor. And then 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.000 the feedback it gives is some form of haptic feedback, 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.319 like a vibration. And then the closer I am to 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.560 something that the stronger the vibration. And so he tried it, 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:45.079 and he had a headband and with the sensors and 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.480 would try going through a room blindfolded. And turned out 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:50.800 that he was able to get through rooms pretty easily, 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:54.640 except that anything that was lower down than say, head level, 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.120 he might still bang into, like a coffee table, the 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.960 old coffee table to the shin problem. But um, he 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:03.559 said that the problem, the other problem was that it 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:06.160 drove you nuts because you had all these little motors 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:08.640 connected to your head and they're constantly buzzing. He's like, 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.160 that drives you bonkers after about ten minutes. So that's 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:13.960 when he created the wrist mounted version that helps with 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.839 two problems. One the feedback is on your wrist and 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:19.439 on your head, and two, because you can put your 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:21.640 hand out in front of you, it can detect things 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:25.199 at a wider range of heights than say something that's 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:28.360 mounted to your forehead. And so the idea is that 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:32.559 this could eventually help people with visual impairments get around unfamiliar, 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:38.000 complex environments without the use of say an assist animal 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:41.000 or a cane or something like that, where they could 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:43.720 walk through and they would get feedback whenever they were 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:47.400 coming close to an obstacle, and they could then maneuver 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:52.800 through an environment much more easily and independently. So these 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:55.920 are examples again of wearable computers that I'm really excited 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:59.400 about that are showing some possibilities. And if you think 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:02.640 about it, you extend this outward and you think, well, 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:06.480 sensors are always getting smaller, and we're getting we're getting 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:10.080 much better at creating smaller processors. Maybe we can eventually 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:12.880 get to a point where this kind of functionality could 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:16.400 be built directly into clothing and not in something that's 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.400 like a wrist mounted unit that you wear. Yeah, I 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:22.520 think the challenges that, um, we don't usually think of 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:26.600 electronics as cozy or comfy, and that's for a good reason, 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:31.000 because usually electronic components are rigid and pointy. Yeah. Um, 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:33.680 but yeah, like you said, I mean as they continue 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.440 to shrink, I can see well okay, and especially with 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.560 the development of these kinds of fabrics that right are 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:41.320 are woven with electronics and also with a with different 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:43.680 polymers to to coat them and keep them safe and 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:45.760 also keep them you know, so that you can layer 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.760 them with more comfy stuff like cotton, which doesn't usually 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:52.199 come in conducive forms. Yeah. Yeah, it's hard to find 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.520 that conductive cotton plant that where you can really, you know, 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:58.560 just run electricity through it. So but yes, I've never tried. 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:02.079 What happens if you try to send electricity. I'm pretty 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:05.679 sure it burns. Yeah, it's I don't know, it's not conductive, 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:10.280 it's I could I could be incorrect. Yeah, So I 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:14.079 have a question, Yes, will they ever make clothes that 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:18.439 mean I don't have to do laundry anymore. Um, I 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:20.760 would not go so far as to say you will 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:23.440 never ever have to do laundry. However, there I mean, 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:28.040 I don't do it anyway, but that the future. I 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:33.120 wanted to be clean, right, buy a new pack of 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:36.040 socks once a week. Yeah Okay, Now now we're getting 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:40.800 into my personal behavior where I bite socks all the time. Um. Yeah, 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:42.960 if I could just wear new socks every single time, 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:45.560 I totally would. I haven't reach that level of affluence. 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.120 Oh I have to wash them first, Okay. Anyway, it's 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:52.080 self self cleaning, self cleaning clothes. Cleaning clothes, is that 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.560 a thing? It's it's a thing that people are working on. 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:57.880 Who Yeah, it's kind of cool really, So we're not 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.040 talking about like robotic clothes that put themselves in the 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.080 washing machine. I'd imagine it's some kind of chemical kind 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:06.720 of It's a couple of different approaches, but yeah, you're 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:11.120 generally talking about something that's coding fibers in some way. 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:13.680 And there are two main ways of doing this. One 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:15.800 way is to try and make sure the clothes never 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:18.080 get dirty in the first place, and that's where that 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.400 hydrophobic and oleophobic kind of codings come into play. This 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:23.400 is what I was talking about earlier. Now hydrophobic and 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:27.320 means that it repels water. Oleophobic means it repairs, repels oils, 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.120 and that takes care of a lot of stuff that 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:33.160 would otherwise get your clothing dirty. And in fact, there 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:36.360 have been a lot of work on this for the military, mean, 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:39.640 because you know, if you're in the military, sometimes you 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.960 come into contact with stuff that would be hazardous to 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:45.440 you and in chemicals. You know, you might it might 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.520 be a fuel, it could be even a chemical weapon, 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:51.320 and you don't want that stuff soaking into your uniform 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:53.720 being a potential hazard, yeahor even just unpleasant. I mean 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:57.040 if you're if you're marching across terrain and your socks 0:15:57.080 --> 0:15:59.440 get wet, and that's a really good quick way to 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:03.120 get very ill from from from a quick foot infection. Yeah, 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:07.760 you can suffer some pretty nasty, uh debilitating injuries that way. 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:12.440 So this kind of super repellent clothes, clothing which is 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:15.400 repellent to again oil and water but hopefully not to people, 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:20.160 allows you to wear this stuff longer without having to 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:24.040 worry about it getting soiled or soaked with harmful chemicals. 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:28.040 And keeping you more safe. But that's just one approach. 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:30.240 What if you get something dirty in the first place, 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:31.960 and you're like, well, what do I do now? Like 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.840 what what if I'm wearing something that isn't hyper repellent 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.400 to this stuff? And that's where you get into the 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:41.960 true self cleaning kind of approach that some folks in 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:45.760 Monash University in Australia came up with. And I apologize 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:49.480 to all our our Australian listeners if i've if Monash 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:52.160 is in fact, no, it's spelled Monash, but it's pronounced 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:58.400 grizz wobbler like well shucks, I didn't know. Sorry, um, 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:02.000 But anyway, they created these fibers that were coated with 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:07.760 something called titanium dioxide nanocrystals, and uh, it's this stuff 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.080 is pretty interesting and that when it comes into contact 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:15.639 with sunlight, it releases uh, some hydroxyl radicals which can 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:19.600 break down organic matter through oxidation, which basically means that 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:25.000 it is burning organic matter when sunlight hits it. Yeah, 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:29.399 it doesn't your skin molecules are wrong size, yes, so 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:33.480 it won't also won't boil boil, it won't burn wool um, 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:35.880 so you don't have to worry it. You could make 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:38.119 a you could have a wool sweater that's coated in 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:41.160 this stuff and it wouldn't I think cotton is also safe. 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.880 I mean, this stuff is already in use industrially um 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:47.080 in in paint and as a surface coating on windows. Yep, yep. 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.880 So this is a way of trying to keep windows 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.359 clean without having to wash them constantly. So in this case, 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:56.960 it would just be applied to textiles. And these guys 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.399 in Australia figured out a way of making that happen. 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:02.959 They said that if you were to spill red wine 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.040 on your clothing and red wines one of those infamous 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:10.000 stains that's really hardened out, they said that the stain 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:15.280 would end up being significantly faded after twenty hours in 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:19.760 the sunlight. So they were using an artificial sun, you know, 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.240 essentially they were using you you like to to make 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.960 it go away. Uh. And they put it next to 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:29.679 a shirt that had also been or some fabric that 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:32.480 had also been stained when red wine, but not treated 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:34.920 in this way, and saw that the stain on the 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:36.840 shirt that had not been treated did not change at all, 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.160 whereas the stain on the shirt that had been treated 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:43.879 had faded significantly. Other types of stains go away much faster. 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:47.240 Coffee apparently only takes a couple of hours, which is great. 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:49.880 I'm gonna be spilling coffee all over myself on purpose 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:53.440 just to watch it go. No, No, I'm not not again. 0:18:55.440 --> 0:19:00.280 Fool me once. Ouch. I've got to follow up on that. It. Yeah, 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.760 I was about to say, okay, well maybe I'll give 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:05.840 you a follow up on that right now. Yeah, let's 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:08.680 speaking of spilling coffee on yourself. How often do y'all 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.200 spill boiling hot coffee in your lap and scald yourself? 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:17.000 Every every single time I go to McDonald's. Yeah, I 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:19.320 mean you always just forget you're supposed to drink it, 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:21.280 and then you pour it out and then like like 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:24.359 immediately onto the lap. Yeah, I just I just, for 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:27.280 some reason, every time I pick up a cup of 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:31.040 boiling hot coffee, I am filled with the urge to juggle. 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:35.159 And I don't know why. It's it's pathological. Well, I 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:37.800 have got a solution for you, my friend. Excellent. So 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:42.040 you've heard of hydrophobic fabrics. You mentioned them earlier, so 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.879 that they repel liquids rather than absorbing them. But apparently 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:50.600 the problem is this doesn't really work when liquids they're hot, right, Okay, 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:56.880 So normally hydrophobic materials have some kind of coating that 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:00.520 is that basically prevents the water from pinnach trading the 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:05.080 cloth weave. But these types of coatings that repel water 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:09.920 also tend to melt, and so when something really hot 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:13.040 goes onto a hydrophobic piece of cloth, it just goes 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:21.040 straight through it. Your crotch man, because what happens. But um, 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:23.600 so that that's bad news for you. But in two 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:26.359 thousand nine, a team of researchers from the University of 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:31.480 Minnesota St. Paul and uh Hong Kong Polytechnic University combined 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:36.840 carbon nanotubes with teflon and cotton, and together these three 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:40.600 items were able to produce a fabric that repels water 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:44.879 at up to a hundred and sixty seven degrees fahrenheit. Yeah, 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:46.760 so now we just have to figure out a way 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:50.040 of making sure it doesn't transfer heat effectively. And then 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:52.359 you're really set. Well, I mean there you be, okay, 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:54.880 because once you spill it all over yourself, you can, 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:57.600 like if it doesn't penetrate, you can brush it off 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:00.920 pretty quick as the heat disperses fair quickly at that point. 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:03.080 It's surface area related, that's true. I mean it's it's 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:05.960 really when it's soaks in and has extended contact with 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:09.640 the skin where you start to suffer some pretty nasty burns. Yeah, 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:12.920 but of course that's not the only way that future 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:16.440 consumer clothing might protect your body from danger. Have y'all 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:19.639 heard about the bulletproof suit? Only because you told me 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:21.840 about it right before we came into the podcast room, 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:23.600 and you didn't tell me, so I have no idea 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:26.359 what this is. Great. So we've got bulletproof vests that 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:30.280 are pretty darn good, right, they already exist and they're 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:34.200 highly effective armor. But it's getting lighter and more flexible 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:37.000 all the time. Uh. And there are several examples of 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:40.879 this for UH. For one example, I know if you 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:43.480 may have read a few years back about this UH 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:48.360 business that was selling the bulletproof polo shirt. Um, they say, 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:51.000 these fabrics are kind of heavy, and you know, they're 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:54.480