For my second project in Disruptive Technologies, I decided to conceptualize a digital photo album you could wear. I wanted to have a shirt that you could wear out which displayed a digital slide show of pictures you captured on a memory card. So what I did was acquire a digital photo frame, shirt, battery supply pack, SD memory card with pictures, and scissors.
I imagined that this would be great for all ages and sexes to wear out in public to show their friends. All you would have to do was capture pictures on a digital camera's SD memory card or flash stick and then insert that card into the side of the frame and presto! You have your pictures ready to go.
The frame could easily be turned off and on as well as have the capability to store pictures in its internal memory so that if you need your memory card back, there would be no problems there. The frame also has the ability for you to control the slide show through pause, fast forward, rewind, zoom, delete, rotate, and even transition slides to your liking. The package would come with 3 removable frame tops in black, silver, and brown. That way you could mix and match to your attire - after all ladies, we all know you can't have a black frame with a brown purse! In addition, the digital photo frame is completely removable when your garment needs to be laundered. The top pops off easily and can be replaced just as simple once the garment has been cleaned.
I feel that kids would love these shirts, and I personally think it would be quite funny to see one on a grandpa's potbelly or a pregnant lady's tummy. With further advancement, the frame could even display a sonogram of the baby in the womb or an X-ray inside the human body. This could essentially become a window into the soul, so to speak. People could make slide shows that they think they are made of. For example, little girls could have a heart of flowers and a bloodstream of sugar, while a LSU fraternity brother would have a heart with the face of a tiger and arteries filled with Jack Daniel's Whiskey!
As for my trials and errors working on this project, let's just say I had to go through many shirts to get this to work. At first I wanted to put the photo frame on the back of the shirt where I thought it would weigh the shirt down less than on the front side. But once I put it back there and put the shirt on, I realized that I couldn't control the device and I also could not see the pictures. So if someone asked me where the picture was taken or who was in it, I would not be able to tell them. So then I came to the conclusion that the device had to be on the front side of the shirt. So after throwing out the first shirt, I cut a hole in the top front side of the next one. But once I had that shirt on, I came to the realization that it looked pretty bulky on the chest (see the black T-shirt above). This could have worked for a guy or a young girl, but for most women, I felt that this would be uncomfortable physically and just give men another reason to stare at their chests. So I threw out that shirt and finally figured that the device would need to be displayed on the stomach. So once I cut a spot for the third shirt, I felt it looked pretty good, but wasn't secure enough (see the orange turtle neck top above). I knew that kids like to run around and jump on things and worried that the display could easily fall off and break. So then I had to go back to the drawing board. I shopped around in Buffalo Exchange for awhile until I came upon a shirt that had a pocket on the front side (see the top left blue and white striped shirt above). Here I could place the device inside the pocket and cut out the front for the display while at the same time keeping it secure from falling off. Thus, I came to my solution.
On a side note, the device normally is not battery operated, but rather needs to be plugged into an outlet. Therefore I had to get a battery pack to make this actually portable. So in the future, if this became marketed, it would definitely need to be battery operated, preferably rechargeable to save the consumer money.
