With the wonderful yet chaotic time that is fashion week, there has been a lot of fashion talk here lately. I get a lot of people asking me why I chose to write a blog about both fashion and technology, since the industries are so vastly different in many ways. But as someone with a foot on each side, I can see that the gap between fashion and tech is shrinking, and fast. Fashion designers are relying more and more on technology to produce their collections, some even integrating technological components into their work. And techies are always, always considering design because, whether you’re making an app, a game, or a wearable device, design is an integral factor in the success of any piece of customer-facing technology. I write Trendy Techie because there are so many parts of both worlds that fascinate and captivate me, and discovering new releases in both fashion and technology is what gets me out of bed in the morning.
Since there has been almost exclusively fashion talk on Trendy Techie in the past few weeks, I thought I’d take a break to share with you a glimpse at my techie projects! Here are my top three tech projects on the go.
1. Kinect for Windows Development
You may already know that I’m currently on a work term as a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft Canada. Among the many things I do in my work day, one of the things I’ve been focusing on is development using the Kinect for Windows v2 sensor. I’ve written three blog posts about it so far, live on the Canadian Developer Connection blog, which you can find at these links:
Microsoft’s Dance Cube Proves Kinect for Windows v2 is Not to be Ignored
Kinect With Me Part 1: Setting Up Your Machine
Kinect With Me Part 2: Tracking Bodies and Overlaying Shapes on Infrared Data
If you follow along with these posts, which go live every Thursday morning, I’d love to hear your experience! Tweet at me using the hashtag #KinectWithMe to chat about all things Kinect.
2. Internet of Things
Outside of work, the main technical project that consumes my time is Internet of Things. If you don’t already know, Internet of Things is the concept of connecting your everyday objects and appliances so they can work together intelligently; this can mean anything from using your smartphone to control the lights in your house, to using a sensor to recognize your face when you walk in the door and set all the lights, thermostats, and televisions to your preferred settings. Internet of Things is a complex and futuristic concept that is way closer to reality than most of us realize. While the masses are focused on wearables, our everyday items are being connected and forming webs of functionality that are changing the way we interact with the environments we know and love. It’s amazing and fascinating and, though I don’t yet know that much about it, I spend a good deal of my time researching and investigating the near future of the Internet of Things.
3. 3D Printing and Design
This one ties back in to fashion and one of my long-time passions: 3D modeling. Computer graphics is actually what inspired me to become a programmer: I saw my professor at UPenn create an animation of fire using a script he had written, and from that day I was hooked on code. I used to do quite a bit of animation back in the day, but now I’ve scaled it back and am focused more on static shapes and modern/minimalist designs.
Victoria’s Secret’s 3D printed lingerie – no, this is not the type of 3D printed design I’m getting into at this time, but it’s pretty darn cool.
I’m working on a collection using Blender to design and Shapeways to print – but I can’t tell you exactly what kind of a collection it is just yet! More on that coming up soon, right here on trendytechie.ca. ;)
