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A Dress with WI-FI?
On the second of February 2020, it was time for the annual BAFTA Awards, which are the awards for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Next to fancy dresses and a lot of make-up, augmented reality played a big role this time. Designer Richard Malone created, especially for this event, which was worn by British television presenter Maya Jama. What was special about this dress is the fact that it interacted with a 5G internet connection. That’s right… a piece of clothing with Wi-Fi.

Now let me elaborate on how this works. First of all, the dress took 250 hours to complete and it consists of six layers and more than 100,00 hand sewn stitches. This is already impressive, but it gets better. The dress also contained more than 18 sensor bulbs and 12 full body-length electric wires. These sensors interacted with the 5G network, which made it possible for the dress to transform on a giant screen next to the red carpet, but also on viewers their smartphones. What’s in real-life just one dress, was shown on screen with various colours, styles and characteristics.

I do have my concerns regarding this new technology used on a piece of clothing. I am talking about the 5G radiation. Don't worry; I am not a lunatic who believes that 5G is spreading the coronavirus and I would never light a radio tower on fire to prevent this. However, it's never proven that 5G is safe for a human being. "Last year, a $30 million study conducted by the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) found “clear evidence” that two years of exposure to cell phone RFR increased cancer in male rats and damaged DNA in rats and mice of both sexes", researcers said (Moskowitz, 2019). So call me delusional, but I just don't think it's smart to wear a dress covered in 5G technology. Especially because it is for this purpose really unneseccary.

References: 

(Moskowitz, J.M. 2019, October 17. We Have No Reason to Believe 5G Is Safe. 
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/we-have-no-reason-to-believe-5g-is-safe/)

If you are interested; make sure to check out the video of the BAFTA Awards 2020:

Augmented Reality Dress BAFTA