To stay in touch with fashion trends and make itself known in a new sphere, Microsoft teamed up with Bloomingdale’s to introduce consumers the result of fusion of fashion with technology—at the New York Fashion Week.
Bloomingdale’s NYC59th Streetstore now offers visitors a tech Print dress unveiled last year and made mostly of paper, inspired by fashion trends and stuffed with the latest technology, which allows users to type words on it to manifest themselves.
People can write phrases on the surface of the dress using a keyboard integrated into dress as a corset and send tweets using the #MSBLOOMINGDALES hashtag. Last year, this dress won Best Concept and Best in Show at the 15th annual International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC) in San Francisco.
Other Microsoft Researchers are exploring wearable technology that could also make any surface an interactive display, says the official Microsoft blog. For example, the Wearable Multitouch Projector could become a brooch or lapel pin one day and the PocketTouch integrated into fabrics could be used as a remote control in your pocket.
Microsoft’s Kinect sensor also has its influence on fashion. Using Kinect, it’s not necessary to put on real clothes without the pain of really trying on clothes now. Swivel, a high-tech dressing room created by FaceCake and featured in the store allows customers trying on clothes virtually. Kinect motion sensing technology recognizes the human body and displays it on a TV screen. To try on clothes, people can wave at the TV and then see themselves from different angles and even make a photo to share it online with friends.
Another new product presented at select Bloomingdale’s stores and online at Bloomingdales.com is the award-winning Arc Touch mouse.
Additionally, Bloomingdale’s invitesU.S.consumers to enter sweepstakes for a chance to win a valuable prize. One Ultimate Grand Prize winner can receive a Windows tablet, Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse and Wedge Mobile Keyboard, Xbox 360 with Kinect and a Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone. Forty first prize winners will receive a Windows tablet and Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse and Keyboard. Consumers don’t have to buy anything to take part in the initiative. They should just text ‘ITSON’ to 51515.