Smart clothing is slowly but surely becoming a larger presence in society. While things really kicked off with the smartwatch, companies have shifted towards different forms of wearables including Ray-Ban smart glasses and the Oura Ring. Now, we could head further into the bizarre as someone on Twitter developed a pair of smart pants that ping your phone whenever your fly is down.
Guy Dupont, a developer on Twitter with no affiliation, revealed his project after one of his friends suggested he make pants that can let a person know when their zipper is undone through a notification on their phone. In Dupont's test, he unzips his pants and waits for a few seconds. Once the sensor realizes his fly is down, it sends a notification letting the user know through a service he called WiFly.
To make it work, Dupont hot glued safety pins to a hall effect sensor and then superglued a magnet to the zipper. He also has wires running into his pocket which allow the notification process to begin after a few seconds. He followed up the video showing how the smart pants worked with a list of supplies he used and the steps he took to get it working.
Despite how useful this feature may be, it raises some concerns for the washing process. Given this tech uses wires, circuits, and glue, putting the pants in the washing machine sounds like a bad idea. It's also unclear how much this would affect battery life since it has to stay connected to your phone all day.
These smart pants are a prototype and haven't been picked up by any investors yet, but we wouldn't be surprised if we end up seeing this type of technology across different brands in the future.
If smart technology does indeed end up being a part of more pieces of clothing and accessories, then we should at least hope they're more useful than the Jacquard-equipped jackets from Levi.