Working with the designers Extra and Tuba Cetin, we designed an intelligent dress outfitted with an Intel Edison chip and a small sensor. With the technology inside, the dress was able to respond to the movement of the model—releasing a flock of moving butterflies whenever she placed her hand on her hip.

The Butterfly Dress was designed by Ezra and Tuba, working with Cagri Tanriover, a software development engineer at Intel Lab’s Europe’s Istanbul office.

The dress is powered by the Intel Edison compute module, a computer smaller than a pack of matches. It can be programmed to perform user-defined tasks and has wireless capabilities and input/output ports that allow it to connect to servers and sensors. The dress also had an exterior proximity sensor so that, when someone gestures to trigger the sensor, the sensor triggers the chip and the butterflies disperse.

Wearable technology is a major area of focus for Intel. Technologies such as the Edison chip will be fundamental to this next wave of computing. This dress is one example of how fashion will become smarter and more responsive to its users in the near future. As part of the “Experience Amazing” campaign, the Butterfly Dress long-format content piece has received 1.36 million views on YouTube.