In the throes of a Kickstarter campaign, smart apparel company Xenoma launches its pre-consumer version of e-skin apparel. Creating camera-free motion tracking experiences, e-skin apparel integrates stretchable sensors and electronics to detect the user movement. This is said to provide an intuitive and immersive input for interacting with virtual reality (VR), augmented reality, (AR) content and games as well as means for analyzing exercise and athletic sports. The technology does all this in the form of a comfortable and machine washable shirt.
In addition to selling the product, the purpose of the Kickstarter project is to provide an open-source platform for more users to create and share user experiences. As per Ichiro Amimori, Co-Founder & CEO, "e-skin is useful and insightful for recognizing what kinds of activities the wearer is doing without being constrained by a camera. We believe there are a variety of needs where e-skin can provide a solution to satisfy and help people."
An e-skin and software developer’s kit is available that supports application development on Java SDK, Visual C#, Unity, and Unreal Engine for MacOS and iOS as well as the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) to interface with the Microsoft HoloLens. The kit also provides machine learning functionality though the company’s data and movement visualization tool, which plugs into Google’s TensorFlow, an open-source deep learning library.
The e-skin pre-consumer version is available to the first 100 people for a backing amount of $479. This version has the same level of functionality for end users and individual developers as their e-skin Developer’s Kit for enterprises. A special edition cybernetic design will be available as a Kickstarter exclusive. With a target of goal of raising $50,000, the project will run until September 6, 2017. If you feel like peeling some green skins from your wallet to support this endeavor, go to the Kickstarter page and knock yourself out. For more details, relax and visit the Xenoma website. ~MD