What is SPOT?   SPOT is Smart Personal Objects Technology introduced by Microsoft at COMDEX Fall 2002.           Kameleon Concept     Smart personal objects that adapt to or anticipate users' needs in the comnstant flux of changing environments, situations, or events and intelligent network that creates a 'symbolic ecosystem' between people, places and objects.           Why Clothing?     1. Clothing is the most physically-intimate personal object that is often part of the interaction. 2. Clothing is flexible and soft - wraps around our body (a second "skin," in a sense) 3. Mobile, most accessible - wherever we go, it is with us 4. Self-expression/identity and fashion           Kameleon Softwear: "Enriching Intimacy Across Distance"     There has been, and will continue to be, an ever-increasing migration of families and friends away from each other. Our nearest and dearest are dispersed around the globe. The mass scale adoption of cell phones and email has been moderately successful at keeping families in touch but communication through a “box” will never be as intimate as actually sensing a relative’s presence. We have identified a need for close, intimate connections between loved ones when separated by distance and location. And what better means of doing this than through clothing. "Kameleon Softwear," brings people together through a more intimate medium of communication – emotional expression. The visual expressions are abstract representations of emotion through color and pattern. Touch involves pressure, temperature, and vibration. The "Kameleon Softwear” is capable of sensing emotional shifts and simple behavioral gestures and then sending them to the intended loved one. On the receiving end, the "Kameleon Softwear” expresses this intimacy through color, illumination, pattern, pressure and temperature change.

2003 Microsoft SPOT Project | Smart Clothing | Kameleon Softwear at Art Center College of Design | designed by Yoonsun Joo