Model, Ex-Spy Pioneers Wearable Tech
Nov. 16 -- For former Czech spy Katrina Barillova, wearing chic, miniature high-tech devices was more than just haute couture — it was a way of life.
“During communism, you had to make your own fashion. As a young girl, I learned to sew clothes for myself,” she says. “Later on, when I became an agent, I integrated different sensors and listening devices into the lining of my own clothes, belts or accessories.”
You could almost call Barillova, 27, a model spy. As a teenager, she took classes in espionage and science, with a modeling career on the side.
‘I Was a Teenage Spy …’
“At 14, I was given a set of psychological and physical tests and I started training and taking classes on top of high school duties — not instead,” she says.
While training in the art of espionage, Barillova also began modeling during her teen years. The stress from two pressure-cooker jobs — along with her accelerated science classes — became so great she nearly didn’t graduate from high school. But she stuck with it.
Then communism fell, and suddenly Barillova’s Cold War spy skills weren’t in much demand. So when she was 18, she headed to the United States.
After several mundane jobs, including bagging groceries and working as a nanny in a rural Oregon, she landed a job as a private detective in Los Angeles. There, she was able to hone her spying skills and fine-tune her fashion sense.
During her stint as a private eye, she met business partner Alex Lightman, with whom she co-founded Charmed Technology, an MIT Media Lab spinoff based in Beverly Hills, Calif. The company aims to make chic, wearable computers.
“People are afraid of technology, afraid of looking like robots,” she says. “That’s where the fashion side comes in. If you make it look like accessories or clothing or everyday objects, people are not so opposed to it.”
Geek ChicHer company, with help from an outside team of researchers, is developing a line of computers that go beyond function into fashion accessories such as belt buckles and necklaces for men and women.
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