Just a few weeks ago in mid-April came the viral news of a remarkable collaboration between Newcastle United, the RNID (Royal National Institute for Deaf People) and Thinking Digital 2022 speaker Francesca Rosella. Together they had created a “sound shirt” that would allow deaf fans to feel the noise of St. James Park and take part in the emotional rollercoaster of your typical Premiership football match.
We can’t wait to welcome back Francesca to Thinking Digital to tell us the origin story of this collaboration and the engineering and UX challenges they had to overcome along the way to make this unexpected and remarkable innovation a reality.
Francesca Rosella’s Bio
Francesca Rosella is a pioneering creative and fashion technologist celebrated for her innovative contributions at the convergence of fashion, technology, and design. As the co-founder of CuteCircuit, the world’s premier wearable technology fashion brand, she spearheads groundbreaking initiatives at the forefront of the digital-physical interface, seamlessly blending augmented reality, interactive connected fashion, and haptic technologies.
Her revolutionary designs have garnered numerous patents, recognising their aesthetic brilliance but also the foundational technologies and construction methods they employ. In acknowledgment of her trailblazing endeavors, Francesca was honored with the Everywoman in Technology Innovator Award in 2023 for her advancements in fashion technology.
CuteCircuit’s products have been lauded as Best Inventions of the Year by Time on two occasions, and have received prestigious accolades such as the UNESCO Netexplo Innovation Award and the AWE Auggie Award for Biggest Social Impact. Furthermore, they are prominently featured in the permanent collections of esteemed institutions such as the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, underscoring their cultural and technological significance.
