This year's next idea winner is Austria's Martin Mairinger's USED clothing.
Martin Mairinger (left) and his 'employee of the month'
RFID tag
I was able to give my try-out a purpose. See my entry from the Ars Electronica Festival 2005.
"The project USED Clothing extends the function of clothes as storage medium by a virtual component: in a "second-hand shop", each article is provided with a RFID tag. Through RFID- and web technology, the respective owners can store and read digital information on the individual garment. Further, a "virtual library" develops e.g. to each T-shirt, into which owners can add arbitrary information and multimedia contents. Thus the "history" of each single garment can be visualized. By exaggerating the identity component, USED Clothing brings up inputs for a discussion concerning future developments within virtual communities." (from USED clothing website)
