Name : Shailendra Rakhecha
District & State : Kolkata, West Bengal
Category : Consumer durables
Award : Consolation
Award Function : IGNITE 2008 Awards
Award Year : 2015
Price : NA
Innovation Description
- Award Status
- IPR Status
- Technical Specification
- Salient Features
- MVIF
- Vard
Shailendra (26) has conceptualised a system in t-shirts wherein a part of the cartoon/illustration on the front/back can be animated while walking using the movements of the hands.
Born and brought up in Kolkata, Shailendra, a class 12 pass out, helps his father in his printing business. Average in studies, he was always at the lookout to do things differently and solve problems. He grew up working with his father and trying his hands at something or the other. One fine day, while watching the movie ‘Paheli’ where he saw a puppet, the idea to make such a T shirt came to his mind. He thought if kids had a friend they could play with on their T shirt itself, it would remove their loneliness. Thinking about various options, he decided to keep it simple and affordable, something which could be manufactured at a large scale.
Experimenting with different materials and methods for months, trying his hand at sewing, and making hundreds of prototypes, Shailendra succeeded in making his animating T-shirt. He achieved this by making the cartoons/illustrations in two parts as per the requirement and not stitching the part to be moved completely with the t shirt. This part was connected from inside through a thick thread with the arm of the t- shirt. The to and fro movement of the arms while walking pulls the thread, which in turn moves that part of the cartoon to which the thread is attached, thereby achieving animation in the object. This system can be combined in a variety of ways for various illustrations.
In his endeavour, though he faced financial problems, his mother kept on egging him to think more and come up with the solution. Once done, all the family members really liked the idea. The patent (634/KOL/2011) for Shailendra’s T shirts was filed by NIF in his name. He was also invited by NIF at the Innovations’ Exhibition at the President House in 2011. Shailendra has many other ideas as well and urges fellow innovators to
“Don\’t just think, think out of the box. Remember ‘ideas are like switches…..they click’”.
http://nif.org.in/innovation/T_shirts_with_movement_based_animation/481