Concept ZIP Jacket Lets You Control Your Media With Clothes-Related Gestures


You might remember the HoodieBuddie, a hoodie with integrated earbuds, so you could pop your mp3 player into the pocket, plug it in, and boom. This Zip jacket concept from Jennifer Darmour is a little more evolved, though I wonder if it’s taking the concept too far. But I’m posting it anyway, because the lady in the video made me.

The idea (if you can glean it from the well-shot, but rather overdone demonstration video above) is that you would control your media machine by interacting with the jacket itself: zip up to turn the volume up, zip down to turn it down, and tug on the retractable HoodieBuddie-like earbuds to prevent them from bouncing all over the place.

Of course, arbitrarily tying together two actions like that results in trouble: what if you’re getting warm, but the song is quiet? I’d have designed it so it only affects your volume when you’re pressing a button on the zipper piece itself — or maybe just give up and decouple the two functions, and install some sort of handy, understated controls on the cuff of the jacket, or the collar.

So, Jennifer, consider my suggestions. The next video you can do at my place. It’s very picturesque. Bring that lady.

[via CNET]