We designed the complex Nitinol actuating mechanism behind this dress that was worn on the runway at NY Fashion Week 2015 and at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016.

The Chromat Adrenaline Dress powered by Intel is composed of printed panels designed in an interlinked, expandable carbon fiber framework. When the garment senses adrenaline, the dress’s framework mimics the fight-or-flight mode and extends the wearer’s sensory system to form an imposing hourglass shape- signaling an augmented, empowered silhouette.

Intel’s Curie processor and a sweat sensor controlled the Nitinol actuating linkages to expand the dress.

Hydramax was an architectural model created by Future Cities Lab and installed in the San Francisco MOMA for 6 months.  The model was designed to respond to museum goers with soft illumination and gentle organic operation of the roof panels.  The silent organic operation was made possible by 60 of our Nitinol actuators embedded in the base of the model.

This is a rotary Nitinol actuator bouncing between end limits. This actuator was designed to move the eyelids in a volume ready toy doll – Baby Bright Eyes. We called her Baby Fright Eyes, because it was so scary to look into her eyeballs, thus the failure of the product. Rotation was 60 degrees back and forth with a couple of ounces of force, using 0.003″ diameter Nitinol wire approximately 6″ long. Realistic eye movement was achieved drawing 2.4 Watts at 3.7 Volts. Our Enhanced Nitinol Actuation Model predicted a stress in the wire of 26 KSI, which closely matched experimental data.