Students from New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) have created a hooded sweatshirt that lets wearers use gestures to send subtle and covert messages.
The sweatshirt, called the "Smart Hoodie" includes a GSM radio that is sewn in and is used to respond to a variety of gestures, according to The Verge.
Three of the gestures are shown in the students' demonstration - touching the hood, touching the sleeve, and rolling up a sleeve. Each gesture sends a different text message to a contact that is pre-programmed into the sweatshirt.
An Arduino board, or microcontroller, was used by students Rucha Patwardhan and Alina Balean to build a mobile phone. The phone includes an Arduino GSM shield that connects the Arduino to the Internet through the GPRS wireless network, The Daily Mail reported.
They said they designed the hoodie because they want to put the "technology behind a cell phone into something truly wearable and every day."
Balean said the first switch was placed in the hoodie's left sleeve to use for secretly sending messages to her Facebook account, The Daily Mail reported.
"After that we tested switches with the hoodie and other sleeve. Gestures that used to require your fingers on a tiny piece of glass now are translated into everyday movement; buttons no more," she said.
The two students then had the hoodie programmed to send text messages to Balean's mother to inform her of what Balean was doing at school.
"If I rolled up my left sleeve it tells her I am in class and can't talk, if I put my hoodie on it tells her that I miss her, and if I push the right sleeve it lets her know I am free and can chat online," she said.
Wearable technology is already being worked on by large companies, The Verge reported. Intel recently introduced a shirt connected to the Internet at Recode's Code Conference. Google's Advanced Technology and Project showed off its electronic tattoos.
The graduates are looking to make the hoodie useful as a safety device. They believe it could help people walking through a bad area at night by letting them send a message about where they are without attracting unwanted attention, The Daily Mail reported.
"Iterations of this hoodie can be a safety device for individuals traveling alone, children, or others that need to communicate discreetly," Balean said.
