Wearable Robotic Fashion: Tentacles, Fabric & DragonBoard 410c
By Saura Naderi, Thinkabit Lab
Originally posted on Qualcomm Developer Network
Ever since high school, I’ve had a wild fashion dream: to design a robot dress. Not just any robot dress, mind you, but an elegant gown that can do things like hug people and move with me as I wear it. Never did I imagine that by revealing this fantasy during an interview, I’d have the opportunity to inspire so many people.
Smart Girls and #AskHerMore
In 2015, I appeared on a panel hosted by Meredith Walker, co-founder of Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls, on behalf of Qualcomm® Thinkabit Lab™, a combination engineering lab, makerspace and classroom built to inspire students in STEM from all cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
As part of Smart Girls’ #AskHerMore initiative, Meredith told us panelists to imagine we were on the red carpet, accepting a Nobel Prize for our work in engineering: “They point the microphone at you and ask, ‘What are you wearing?’ What would you say?”
I flashed back to the idea I’ve had since high school to create a crazy, elegant gown that moves autonomously as I move, with a control pad on the inside and maybe steam coming out. I could see it in my mind: me, on the red carpet, describing how I made the robot dress.
