Tiny Robots Are the Fashion Accessory of Tomorrow
MIT’s ‘living jewelry’ consists of palm-sized robots that cling onto clothing with magnets.
Clothing is, normally, something you put on and hopefully don’t have to think about. However, Project Kino from the MIT Media Lab takes a different approach, in the form of small robots that literally move across a garment. These robots do so using using magnets that roll along on the inside of clothing, allowing the externally-moving bots to traverse the outside.
If you recall, the team first published a paper detailing early versions of the robot, dubbed “Rovables,” last year. Now, it appears they have gotten a bit more fashionable with Project Kino. These robots can be part of the clothing itself, modifying the appearance as needed, or they could serve a functional purpose.
As seen in the video here, this could mean pulling down a hoodie if a there’s a change in weather, or moving towards a user’s mouth to function as a Bluetooth-enabled microphone/speaker for phone calls.
It is our vision that in the future, these robots will be miniaturized to the extent that they can be seamlessly integrated into existing practices of body ornamentation. With the addition of kinetic capabilities, traditionally static jewelry and accessories will start displaying life-like qualities, learning, shifting, and reconfiguring to the needs and preferences of the wearer, also assisting in fluid presentation of self. We envision a new class of future wearables that possess hybrid qualities of the living and the crafted, creating a new on-body ecology for human-wearable symbiosis.
Though there are still some challenges to be overcome, such as size and battery life, it’s an interesting concept that would be certain to make you stand out in any situation!