Hasta La Gadget!

Thank God we don’t see too many glitches in our technology these days. Visual glitches can be annoying, frustrating and often brightly blinding. Which is how I would describe these coats.

These coats are born from an unholy alliance between Japanese designers Nukeme and Ucnv. They’re available with either a black or white coat and an all-over glitch pattern that might make you lose your lunch if you stare at it too long.

On the upside, each is handmade and ships to you from beautiful Toyko. It will cost you about $295(USD) to look like a walking glitch. Too bad these coats don’t come with recordings of audio distortion to go along with them.

You can get up close and personal with a 3D scan of the outfits here.

[Yearoftheglitch via Boing Boing via Fashionably Geek]

The simple embrace of a loved one can provide some serious stimulation as you can feel all warm and good from something as simple as a hug. But there are people out there who have yet to know the joy of what it’s like to get a hug from a girlfriend or boyfriend as well as a sweet nothing into your ear, which is why a bunch of Japanese students decided to let technology give them the embrace they need.

Students at the University of Tsukuba created a coat that would give the wearer the sensation they are being hugged from behind by their girlfriend. The Riajuu Coat, as it’s called, uses a combination of a jacket, headphones and a belt that tightens around the wearer’s waist in order to get the feeling of a hug at that location. Judging by the sound of the virtual girlfriends included in the attached video, we have a feeling these Japanese students might have seen one too many animes.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Nike Hologram Promotion In Amsterdam, Apple Job Listing Pulled, Possible Flexible Display Down The Road,

Sure, we may have internet in the skies and refrigerators with Evernote integration, but here’s one thing that science can’t do: deliver a trouble-free heated jacket. A few years after Ardica hung up the dream due to a battery recall, Columbia is doing likewise. The sportswear company has issued a recall for seven Omni-Heat electric jacket models, citing a manufacturing defect in the heated inner wrist cuff. There have been two non-injury incidents reported (Canada, UK), but no injuries. According to the company’s own statement on the matter, a “small number of the 2012 Columbia heated jackets may contain a heated inner wrist cuff component with a manufacturing flaw that may cause an electrical short to occur, giving rise to a potential burn risk.” This is all in addition to a separate recall in early January specific to a small number of batteries, (part number 054978-001) that — according to Columbia — “may have been included with a small number of electric jackets may overheat and result in a fire hazard.”

If you’ll recall, the Circuit Breaker was actually one of our favorite gadgets of 2011, but curiously, we never could pinpoint when and where these were set to go on sale. We were independently contacted by a company that claimed Columbia was using its technology in breach of contract, but never could verify if that was the reason sales seemed to be on hiatus. [Update: Columbia affirmed to us that said claims are “unfounded” and “had no impact the delivery of its Fall 2011 Omni-Heat Electric products.”] Evidently, a few hundred of these finally made their way into the warm embrace of consumers, but considering that “Refund” looks to be the only remedy here, we sort of doubt a second generation will emerge. It’s important to note, however, that Columbia’s non-electric Omni-Heat offerings aren’t included in the recall — and, for the record, that stuff does a stellar job of keeping one warm without any whiz-bang circuitry. Hit up the links below if you’re thinking of sending yours back.

Filed under: Wearables

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Source: CPSC, Columbia