New York hosts one of the biggest fashion
events of the year, the Met Gala, in May. Each year the event sees the
most phenomenal pieces that fashion has to offer. This year's theme
"Manus X Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology"
is aimed at incorporating tech into fashion. Not to be left out, IBM
has partnered with fashion house Marchesa to introduce a one of a kind
smart dress at the event.
IBM Watson's team collaborated
with Marchesa co-founders Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig, to create a
data-driven, LED lights embedded smart dress, which was worn by model
Karolina Kurkova. The dress is specifically designed to change colours,
in real time, according to the mood of social media, specifically those
commenting on the dress via Twitter.
The dress has been designed to isolate
and respond to five major emotions – excitement, joy, passion,
curiosity and encouragement. On detecting these emotions, the dress will
glow brighter and change colours accordingly. For example, red would
signify confidence, while grey would connote futurism.
The
dress uses the same technology that IBM Watson has been using since its
conception in 2011. The dress makes use of APIs (application program
interfaces). IBM developers, with the assistance of Marchesa designers,
provided the intelligent system with a list of past Marchesa dresses to
make corresponding comparisons and develop a colour scheme that
corresponds to specific emotions.
IBM's developer partner Inno360 specially
garnered fabric for the cognitive dress that would integrate Watson's
technology while also simultaneously maintaining Marchesa's trademark
aesthetics. The dress successfully represented the theme of the Met
Gala, blending fashion and technology into one phenomenal product.
"Watson gives you information, but Watson
itself isn't designing the dress. And that's what I liked," says
Chapman. "It's a way of using [technology] to enhance what we do. It's
being able to dream something. It brings a childlike quality back to
it," the NY Magazine reported.
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