A study on the development of a user-focused multi-functional convergence-smart-fashion product

The attempts of combining fashion and technology together to provide digital functionalities at the closest distance users has been continued based on context-aware computing and wearable sensing. Through such convergence, the productive benefits of user-oriented computing and the expansion of traditional fashion functionality can be achieved. In this study, we aim to investigate the optimized way for the development of convergence-smart-fashion prototypes that provide user-oriented multi-functionality to increase the potential features of fashion and widen the application scope of related technologies. Through research and development (R&D), we developed four convergence prototypes which could provide four different functions: 1) Rear-detection, which detects vehicles or people approaching from rear-side and warns the user through vibrations. 2) Bluetooth hands-free provides remote-control functions, such as phone-call and sound-streaming. 3) Vital-signal monitoring, which measures and displays user's heart-beat rates and body heat through a built-in-screen and smartphone application for a user's health-care. The development was proceeded based on the following steps: the determination of the basic usability as a garment and its related practical digital functions, the minimization of the size of the system modules which could be easily assembled and disassembled to ease washability, and the system maintenance, which could help to diversify the usage of convergence fashion.