Light Up Your Life

In the next few weeks we want to talk a bit about technology and t-shirts. We don’t mean the geeky technology t-shirt designs we mean technology that is part of the t-shirt.

Lets start with the light up t-shirts. Many of us have seen the equaliser t-shirts that light up when they are in an environment with music or loud sounds.

You would think that these t-shirts would have bulky attachments or would be uncomfortable to wear but there not. So how do they work I hear you ask! Well I’ll tell you.

They use something called electroluminescent technology. It is super thin at less than 4 millimeterers thick. It is light weight and flexible! The only thing the wearer will notice is a small battery pack needed to power the shirts lights but this is normally hidden away in a small pocket near the bottom of the t-shirt.

This causes it to light up in a pre-programmed pattern. Some battery packs have a built in microphone so that it can hear the music and detect the beat or sound causing it to flash just like your stereo! This area is then cut to size and shape needed for the design. Pretty cool huh?

There are other t-shirts that light up using LED lights. These come in many different forms. You can get ones that show the time or ones that show your own personal message. You remove the LED panel and you scroll through the alphabet and an assortment of numbers and symbols and use “select” button to choose that character, it’s that simple! The LED Matrix includes 147 LED Nodes. The LED Matrix panel fits snuggley in the custom pocket in the front of the shirt. The Panel can be easily removed at any time, but stays in place with in its custom pocket until you want to remove it. It is also removed for washing. We have also discovered a Tony Stark t-shirt that has the  light-up Arc Reactor. I have to say I love the fact that it says “Does not prevent shrapnel from reaching your heart” in the description.

There are also the t-shirts that allow you to draw on them and have your writing light up. There seem to be two styles of this kind of t-shirt.

There is the type that has a panel built into the t-shirt. It comes with pens and you write your message on the panel. This panel then lights up your writing! You can then simply wipe it off and start again! The controller lets you cycle through the light patterns. You can choose from a range of lighting sequences including soft pulsing, glowing, bright flashing, phasing, strobing as well as steady on features. Like the other t-shirts above it is battery operated and the battery pack is hidden in the hem of the t-shirt.

The last type we will talk about today is what people are calling the Glow Graffiti t-shirts or Lazer Shirts. These are interactive white t-shirts that let you design your own creation with the power of UV light. Simply touch the ultraviolet Lazer to the shirt, press the button, and draw or write whatever you want. Turn off the lights and your shirt will glow, displaying your Design. When the design finally fades, you can use your UV light to draw something totally new. The great thing about these t-shirts is you can still toss it in the washing machine like every other t-shirt.

 

Well that’s all for today. Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as we did writing it. Check out http://www.foutees.com till next time bu-bye!