General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

5

AKA

T-shirt

Patents

N/A

General Description

Black 100% cotton T-shirt; black, grey and white microfibre [synthetic] and [synthetic] crystal decoration; silver metal snaps fixed inside battery housing.

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

78.0 cm

Width

52.0 cm

Height

1.5 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Physics

Category

Light & electromagnetic radiation

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

CuteCircuit

Country

United Kingdom

State/Province

Unknown

City

London

Context

Country

Worldwide

State/Province

Unknown

Period

This item new/never used.

Canada

LED-embedded fabric's popularity continues to increase in Canadian market in 2010s. [Ref. 1]

Function

LED-embedded fabric designed to enhance appearance of a black T-shirt.

Technical

The work on electroluminescence dates back to early 1900s, but it was not practically applied until 1962, when Nick Holonyak from GE developed the first visible spectrum light emitting diode (LED). For the first decade LEDs only emitted red light. The first LEDs were used in laboratory and test equipment. As the technology matured, the light output increased to yellow and orange; then in1994, to high brightness blue; and finally ca.1996 to high power white, which allowed LEDs to be used for illumination. Flexible LEDs were only developed in 2000s, and thin film LEDs in 2010s. The earliest work on e-textiles was conducted in the 1990s at MIT by Steve Mann, Thad Starner and Rehmi Post. It resulted in several patents, issued in 1997. One of the first LED fabric products was a spinoff from the MIT’s work. Between 2003 and 2004, architectural designer Talia Dorsey (MIT Architecture); filmmaker Joshua Dorsey; media scientist Mathew Laibowitz (MIT Media Lab); and LED entrepreneur Eran Plonski (CEO of Divvali LED Lighting & Design) designed LUME, a lightweight, LED-embedded textile. LUME was exhibited at the Center for Architecture in New York in 2004. Philips Research also invested in some early work on photonic textiles. Philips’ prototypes were presented at the Consumer Electronic Fair in Berlin in 2005. While MIT’s research quickly led to commercial products, researchers at Philips mostly considered health and safety applications for their e-textiles. [Ref. 1]

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

"CUTECIRCUIT" appears on one side of garment tag fixed to inside of neckband. Washing and handling graphics and text "CUTE CIRCUIT/ Designed in London", "100% RoHS Technology/ PATENT PENDING", "WASH INSTRUCTIONS/ Remove battery before washing/ Hand wash cold. Line dry/ Do not wring. No tumble dry./ Do not dry clean. Do not iron" and "www.cutecircuit.com" appear on reverse of garment tag. "L" printed on second tag sewn to inside neckband. Large "+" on inside pocket identifies battery compartment.

Missing

Appears complete.

Finish

Black 100% cotton T-shirt; black, grey and white microfibre [synthetic] and [synthetic] crystal decoration; silver metal snaps fixed inside battery housing.

Decoration

Black, white and grey circles, some decorated with crystals, arranged in random pattern on T-shirt front.