9 Click-Click-Gimme-Gimme: Pleasures and Perils of the “Opt In” World of Fashion Tech

From smart fibers and tattoos, biosensing devices and implants, networked jewelry or an LED encrusted dress, there are many kinds of technologies that can be deemed “wearable.” Wearable technology is by definition technology worn on the body, such as smart watches, activity trackers, internet-and communication-enabled jewelry or clothing, and e-textiles, the kind of “embodied computing technologies” that sit on the skin, referred to in this book's introduction. Wearables’ functionality ranges from simple phone call and text alerts, to sensing emotional states or physical stress. Blinking, vibrating, hardening, extending, shocking—wearables’ interactivity networks and connects bodies, and reveals their inner workings. Wearables’ functions generally range from eminently practical—like tracking heart rate or counting steps—to utterly fantastical, as when, for instance, a dress responds to biometric indicators of interest or attraction by gradually becoming more transparent (Wipprecht 2011).
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