The Hiut Denim Co’s customers are the creative community, people who appreciate the care, craft and detail in every pair.
To tell the story of the jeans they felt it was appropriate to “tech hack” a pair of jeans and
utilise the latest innovation – conductive ink.
To tell the story of the jeans they hacked a shop window, using Bare Conductive Paint to turn it into an interface for the story of Hiut Denim.
In the specialist jeans store Rivet & Hide, creative technology agency Knit utilised the window space to create an installation, which allows potential customers to hear the story of the brand and the product details as they interact with different parts of the product by touching the relevant icons on the outside of the window.
This is the first time that conductive ink has used through glass and as part of an in-store retail installation.
As customers walk past the store a sensor detects their proximity and a random audio sample using transducer speakers on the window encourages them to find out about the story about Hiut Jeans. For example, “Our town is making jeans again. Touch the window to find out more.”
The stylish icons which represent different parts of the brand story are painted onto the inside of the window using conductive ink, with wires on the inside of the window linking to the relevant parts of the product. Inside the pair of jeans includes various Arduino microcontroller units to control the audio samples and triggers.
The conductive ink is able to detect the change in the capacitance as the person touches the window icon, which in turn triggers the circuit to play the relevant audio sample. As well as audio, light bulbs are also triggered to switch on to create visual impact.
via wearknit.co.uk, video via Knit, photos via blog.atmel.com