New Singer Sewing Machine Uses ... Game Boy

Spooticus writes: "I kid you not, your Game Boy can now sew using Singer's IZEK System! Excerpt: The Singer Sewing Company has teamed up with Nintendo to create a new sewing machine system using Game Boy technology that automatically sews stitch patterns, buttonholes and lettering. The system, called Izek, includes a sewing machine, Game Boy, connection wire and special cartridge that contains stitch pattern designs." I don't know what to say. My jaw has hit the floor.

Re:singer USED to make real computers

Singer sold point-of-sale systems that it obtained from purchasing a company called Friden in 1963. The computer branch of Singer was sold in 1976 to ICL [icl.com]. Here's a German page with a listing for an old Singer computer [debitel.net], as well as another listing in English [digiweb.com]. This article on Computer Weekly [findarticles.com] describes Singer and NCR as being the kings of the point-of-sale terminal market in the mid-seventies.

Second Law of Blissful Ignorance

high end sewing machines

As one who bought the 4k$ PFAFF high end hoop machine for my wife, I can tell you these machines are AMAZING works of hardware and mechanics. They're like a very large Rolex. Totally programmable. You can code up patterns in windows and store them on a pcmcia like memory card that plugs into the machine. Then clip up the fabric and watch the thing sew the exact pattern perfectly. I've wanted to digitize a face and translate that into a 4 color pattern then looks photorealistic when embroidered, but haven't had the time. Remember the base color of a piece of thread looks different depending on which way the light hits it and which direction the thread is going across the material. I believe with just a few colors and threads laid down in the right patterns with a precision machine like this, you can get amazing picture quality. Beyond the embroidery function (the hoop portion), is the basic sewing ability which is breathtaking. the thing moves fabric forward and backward with thousandth of an inch precision, can stick intricate patterns, 2 needles at the same time, through thick leather, yada yada. Anyway, I took a weekend and satisfied (almost) my engineer lust with the machine, then gave it to my wife. Haven't touched it since.... :)

singer USED to make real computers

way back when I first started working with computers (for real pay) - back in the early 80's - I worked with a lady who told me about her experience with Singer the computer manufacturer! yes, same one who makes those sewing machines. I was told these were mainframes or; minis at the very least.

I never did see the user manuals for this mythical machine, but she assured me that it was a real box and was quite well deployed in its day (1970's I think).

anyone ever run into one of these beasts?

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Nintendo and Sewing

Back in the day of the Nintendo (I think the SuperNintendo/SuperFamicom was out at this time, but I'm talking about the 8-bit Nintendo I and others still owned/used), I was living in Singapore, and I remember hearing stories that some freinds-of-freinds-of-freinds(....) in Japan actually had sewing machines hooked up to that huge ugly connector on the botoom of 8-bit Nintendos.

That rumor was never confirmed, but it seemed plausible that the expansion port was meant for _something_. If so, maybe it was a Singer sewing machine, and maybe it was the start of the relationship which brings us this Izex thing.

You'd be surprised what the Gameboy can do.

I have the PDA cart you speak of, it does have a learning IR remote. Try the GameBoy Dev'rs [devrs.com] site for more stuff. There's a MIDI cart, an MP3 player cart [song-pro.com] and someone even managed to get a robot running using a GameBoy and Lego...

This is actually a great idea

As some other posters have pointed out down below in the +1 area, current high-end sewing machines tend to be highly computerized and highly expensive. They're like special-purpose milling machines. They tend to use docking cables to laptops to handle the importation of sewing patterns, stitching patterns, whatever.

The obvious problem with this is that laptops are WAY expensive, and, let's face it, the overlap between the sewing machine crowd and the laptop crowd is not 100%.

The non-obvious problem is that sewing and stitching patterns are copyrighted, and the software on the laptops likewise. This led to some ferocious encryption stuff. The protocols spoken by the machines were highly proprietary and had to be run through printer-port dongles. It was fierce...and inconvenient.

The GameBoy solution solves so many things, it just has to be elegant. The cartridge amounts to a dongle. The GameBoy provides all the computing smarts needed - a laptop was extreme overkill in this department. Also, you get to cut down on the solid state stuff in the sewing machine itself, and take advantage of the immense economies of scale of the Gameboy, which has got to be the most immediate benefit here.

Nothing impresses Me anymore!

At the camp I work at, every year, a group of Quilters come in to quilt for a weekend using our facilities. They come in and quilt till 1 or two in the morning....they are insane quilters...and their sewing machines are simply incredible! Several of the quilters have high-end sewing machines with LCD, backlit displays and accept 3.5" floppy disks to program in stitches and such. This gameboy cartridge thing doesn't seem nearly as portable and as useful as a simple floppy! These women were incredible..they would go home and program stitches and download the latest stuff off the net so they could stitch some stronger seams and such. And that was more than a year ago....

Now all we need....

...are downloadable blueprints for those DeCSS T-shirts! ;-)

but...

You can only use black thread until you pay $300 to upgrade to the Gameboy color.

Just be careful!

A neat, if decidedly weird, idea; just be careful you don't mix up your game packs.

I'd hate to accidentally stick Castlevania in there, and suddenly have my sewing machine possessed by a demon...
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Circular...

Well, we've just gone full circle now, haven't we?

Starting with the punch cards inspired by the textile industry, and using the icons inspired by embroidery... Now we're using a pocket gaming system to do the original functions we copied!

I guess that's a tribute to our history, albeit a sick one.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [ncsu.edu].