The Robotic 3D Printed Spider Dress

It has been a great year for wearable technology; from sport, to health, to impulse control, wearable devices have found any sort of applications by now. Dutch engineer and designer Anouk Wipprecht, who specializes in electronic couture with a futurist twist, created the personal space defensive Spider Dress. Programmed to define and protect the personal space of the wearer, the 3D printed dress is adorned with 20 embedded proximity sensors, respiration sensor and wireless bio-signals connected to an Intel Edison platform. The dress provides an extension of the wearers intuition, as Wipprecht explains: “Approach the wearer too aggressively and the mechanical limbs move up to an attack position. Approach the system under calmer circumstance and the dress just might beckon you to come closer with smooth, suggestive gestures”. In the virtual realm we try to stay always connected and closer through instant messages and social networks, while in the real world we feel the urge to design a set of wearable mechanical arachnid legs to defend our personal space.