Navigate Urban Wayfinding Jacket: A Sense of Style and Direction

Navigate Urban Way-finding Jacket:
A Sense of Style and Direction

By: Kassiopia Jackson

What comes to mind when you think about wearable technology? The Samsung watch? Google glass? If you can’t think of much of anything else, don’t worry. It isn’t from a lack of trying, but from a lack of exposure. I bet if you were to go out on the street and ask someone about wearable technology, they would probably bring up the same two things. Wearable Experiments is on a mission to change how we perceive wearable technology.

Earlier this year, Wearable Experiments created the NAVIGATE jacket. The NAVIGATE jacket is a fashion staple which doubles as a map so the wearer can navigate their physical environment. According to Billie Whitehouse, co-founder of Wearable Experiments, the NAVIGATE jacket removes the navigation from the hands of the user and gives the wearer their eyes back.

The way the NAVIGATE jacket works is simple. Prior to wearing the jacket out, you would have to download the companion app. On this app you would have several destinations saved. From your list of hot spots around town, you would select one destination and the app would download the destination information to the NAVIGATE jacket. Now we get to the good part.

The NAVIGATE jacket utilizes haptic feedback from a device which sits in the center of the back of the jacket. The device instructs you where to go by vibrating either the left or right arm with accompanying lights alongside the arms of the jacket. Once you reach your destination, both sides of the NAVIGATE jacket light up indicating that you made it.

Despite having the device in the back , the NAVIGATE jacket is an article of clothing you can wear all day and no one would suspect you were a walking GPS. The NAVIGATE jacket is also revolutionary in a sense that it doesn’t suspend your senses, but enhances them. This jacket vibrates and lights up causing you to not only realize you’re coming up on a turn, but to survey the environment in which you find yourself.

In spite of all of the benefits the NAVIGATE jacket does for the wearer, we have to wonder about the social implications of owning such a piece of clothing. If you were on Facebook this summer, then you probably saw a post on your wall about the Facebook messenger app. A concern for many was the app asking for permission to use the user’s camera and microphone. This, coupled with a 2013 article about the Facebook messenger app being “insidious,” brought up fears about not only being spied on by Facebook, but also about the potential manipulation of a user’s devices without their knowledge.

Because the NAVIGATE jacket utilizes an app with saved destinations, it can cause concern with those who fear what comes of the information input into the app. Some may wonder if the data collected will be used to solicit to them based on the area they frequent or if they are giving their info to companies who intend to market to users via where they shop, eat, etc. At the point of posting this blog, I haven’t found anything regarding the permissions of the app and how it manages the accumulated directions. Perhaps only time will tell.

Regardless of such implications, the NAVIGATE jacket is an amazing marvel as it stands to unite the world of fashion and the world of technology.

Learn all about the NAVIGATE jacket