tshirtOS: Smart as your average phone

Meet tshirtOS. An LED display, camera, microphone, speaker and accelerometer wrapped up in a cotton skin — controlled through an app on your smartphone.

A prototype concept, tshirtOS is described as a platform for self-expression — the “wearable, shareable, programmable and 100% cotton tshirt”. The smart tshirt can currently play music videos and songs through iTunes, take advantage of Instagram by snapping shots through a camera on the belly of the shirt and fire them off across the web, and show social media messages such as Facebook posts and tweets.

An iPhone4S and iOS5+ mobile application are linked to the tshirt via a microprocessor, providing wireless features to bring the textiles online.

The design came from the collaborative efforts of CuteCircuit with whiskey brand Ballantine’s (perhaps they considered the idea for marketing purposes?), and digital partner WorkClub also contributed to the project.

Ballantine’s claims the inbuilt camera within the tshirt is the smallest in the world. It measures 2.5 x 2.9 x 2.5 mm and only captures at 32 x 32 resolution — not perfect for those Instagram fans out there but still acceptable for a prototype. The chest display consists of over 1000 RGD LEDs, and the tshirt also comes equipped with a UBS port, a pair of headphone sockets, and a Bluetooth PCB.

At the moment, the tshirt is a very expensive prototype to reproduce. Ballantine’s and CuteCircuit are currently taking advantage of social media to gauge consumer demand, and if it proves high enough, the design may one day be for sale.

Image credit: CuteCircuit