At the  National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, one specific presentation of MIT stole the show. The central idea, that got a lot of attention, is using a virus to develop hi-tech batteries that could be woven into clothing. It is harmless to humans and can be engineered as a bio-template to produce lithium ion batteries which could be made into clothing like military uniforms. In this way several portable devices such as smart phones, GPS units and handheld radios can be easily powered.

Source: PSFK

Open Softwear is a book about fashion and technology: more precisely about Arduino boards, conductive fabric, resistive thread, soft buttons, LEDs, and some other things and can be downloaded here.

My colleague Rudi has blogged at Hunting a Snark on the LilyPad Arduino.

The Arduino modules are popular because they are very hands-on and it takes little effort to learn to use them. I see a lot of my non-tecchie students using them to use sensors etc.

The LilyPad Arduino is a variant of the Arduino modules, it consists of “sewable electronic components that let you build your own soft, interactive fashion”. It was created by Leah Buechley at MIT.

As one can connect sensors, LEDs, accelerometers to the LilyPad Arduino board and sew it into your bag, hoodie, T-shirt,… the possibilities for building interactive textiles seem unlimited.

Check out Leah Buechley photos on Flickr.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Mass customisation … the buzz word … everybody knows what it means and can instantly name 10 to 20 examples of companies that provide their products with mass customisation options.

But how does the production of those mass customized products work …. how do the underlying technologies funtions? On the blog of Joseph Flaherty - founder of Replicator, Inc, a company that manufactures and sells custom consumer products – all technologies that enable personal fabrication are explained.

Everything you always wanted to know about 3D printing, Laser Cutters, Waterjet Cutters, 2D Plotter Cutters, Print on Demand, Direct To Garment Printing, CNC Milling, CNC Embroidery, Cut & Sew Construction, 3D Scanning is explained with small video contributions in his post: ‘Personal fabrication for dummies’.