Musical t-shirts turns children into little Beatles

John Paul George & Me brings musical creativity to children through interactive t-shirts adorned with conductive paint.

Turning children into little Beethovens is something many parents dream about, and a new development in wearable technology is looking to introduce kids to music through play and games. Studioany’s wearable musical instruments — John Paul George & Me — are transforming children into little versions of the Beatles. The interactive textiles aim to encourage creativity and get children into music through collaboration and play.

Each t-shirt represents a different musical instrument: a bass guitar, guitar and drums. The shirts feature a removable microcrontroller that links to a mobile app via Bluetooth, which in turn plays the music. Multiple t-shirts can be connected to the same device to play like a wearable rock trio.

But the Swiss project’s real creative work is in making new uses of conductive paint. The instruments on the t-shirts are applied using the electrically conductive paint, which is washable and non-toxic, and forms a space on the t-shirts that is sensitive to touch, allowing the children to play their instruments.

We’ve seen similar developments in using wearable tech for music and creativity, such as a jacket that enables users to create music through gestures alone. How long will it be before we see rock bands filling out stadiums playing music with their shirts and jackets?