We've already seen a preview of CISO James Beeson's talk next week at SecureWorld Seattle.
He's going "all in" on the explosion of the cybersecurity attack surface explosion that's in our future.
One of the points he'll make is that the IoT is going places we have a hard time imagining right now.
He says clothes we wear will become a major part of the IoT.
The idea just became closer to reality thanks to an IoT breakthrough by researchers at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington.
How do you wash connected clothes?
A big barrier to clothes being a part of the IoT has to do with them looking good and smelling fresh: most of the time, you can't wash electronics. And do you want a battery pack attached to you all the time? Now researchers say they've found a way around these problems.
“You can think of the fabric as a hard disk — you’re doing this data storage on the clothes you’re wearing,” says Professor Shyam Gollakota, co-author of the research.
"This is a completely electronic-free design, which means you can iron the smart fabric or put it in the washer and dryer."
Magnetized fabric is the key
Researchers magnetized off-the-shelf conductive thread through a simple process, then sewed it into clothing and accessories. They then used this in some really cool ways.
They programmed the fabric to interact with a code reader and unlock a door. Imagine swiping your shirt sleeve at the front desk when checking into your hotel and then using your shirt to get into your room. No more keys to lose.
And they also demonstrated how the approach works for gesture recognition and interaction. They did this by starting and stopping music on a smartphone without ever touching it or the headphones - without touching anything. They simply made a gesture in the air.
“With this system, we can easily interact with smart devices without having to constantly take it out of our pockets,” said Ph.D. student Justin Chan, lead author of the research paper describing the team’s work.
More possibilities and possible applications
We really like this video from KOMO News in Seattle that puts things in plain English. Or you can watch (below) the University of Washington's video if you want to geek out on some of the technical details.
Either way, it's amazing to think about the possibilities here. And the cybersecurity challenges that will come with it.
