Highlights from that BRIC panel on cosplay and wearable tech

NYU students, game designers and Brooklynites of all sorts gathered at the BRIC Arts Media Center last night to talk about “biowearable” musical instruments, biophysical sensors and, of course, cosplay.
As part of BRIC’s Stoop Series, “Geek Chic: Wearable Tech and Cosplay” played host to an evening with some of Brooklyn’s most innovative minds.
Here’s a look at some of the presenters and their projects:

1. Heidi Boisvert

Boisvert is the founder of XTH, which is making possibly one of the coolest wearables in the world today: The XTH Sense, a “biowearable instrument.”
The XTH Sense amplifies the inaudible sounds from your internal body, like the heart beating, muscles moving and blood flowing. By moving freely, you can change the pitch, timbre and rhythm of those sounds.

2. Kaho Abe

Abe is a Brooklyn-based game designer and media artist. She tackled wearable tech in gaming, which she knows all about as the Artist in-Residence at the Game Innovation Lab at NYU’s engineering school.
One of Abe’s projects, “The Lightning Bug Game,” is a direct mashup of an adventure co-op game with the use of a wearable device.
In the game, two users must work together as the last two lightning bugs in a world consumed by pollution, and their collaboration is directly tied to their wearable gear.

For more info on BRIC’s myriad of free cultural events, visit bricartsmedia.org.