Anouk Wipprecht Creates Brain-Controlled Hypnotize Dress

Dutch designer Anouk Wipprecht has created the Hypnotize Dress, a new project that merges 3D printing, electronics, and neurotechnology. The dress is controlled by the wearer's brain activity through integrated electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors.

Wipprecht collaborated with neurotechnology company g.tec to use its Unicorn BCI-Core EEG headset to capture brain activity data. This data is translated into a concentration metric that influences the pattern of eight display panels built into the dress. The EEG data estimates a trained concentration-performance value between 0 and 100, which is mapped to the animation running across the eight screens.

The eight circular screens are mounted on the dress using 3D printed architecture and display hypnotic black and white patterns. When the wearer's concentration increases, the movement of the patterns accelerates. When concentration drops, the patterns slow down accordingly.

Wipprecht explained: "I'm interested in what happens when the interface isn't a screen in front of you, but something you wear."

The project builds on Wipprecht's previous work, including the ScreenDress from 2023, which also used an EEG headset to create a brain-computer interface, this time measuring the mental workload of the wearer and responding with protruding screens displaying eyes with increasingly dilated pupils.

Both the ScreenDress and the Hypnotize Dress are prototypes that seek to explore what happens when a brain-computer interface becomes something wearable and public.