SIXTH — process 17
SIXTH — render 01
SIXTH — process 16

2026 · Harvard University

SIXTH

Wearable Systems · Product Design
Physical Intelligence · Speculative Design

Role: Design, Speculative Research, Material Research, E-Textile Fabrication Sensing and Electrical Engineering

A physical intelligence wearable and a second skin system for female athletes and operators navigating through extreme environments.

SIXTH is a full-stack biosensing and actuation system designed for female athletes operating in high-performance and extreme environments. The project addresses a critical gap: existing wearable technology is predominantly designed around male physiology, leaving female athletes without reliable real-time intelligence about their own bodies during exertion.

The system integrates SpO₂, HRV, core temperature, and sweat sodium sensing into a seamless electronic-textile assembly, and closes the loop through an actuation layer of haptic actuators, thermal controls, and spatial audio communicating physiological state directly through the body, without requiring visual attention.

Hardware

ESP32 V2MAX30102 Pulse Detection SensorLM393 Soil Moisture SensorNTC Thermistors ResistorsPiezoelectric Buzzer

Software

Rhino 7BlenderPython

Fabrication

Laser CuttingDigital EmbroideryMachine-SewingHeat PressingPU CoatingHigh Temp Baking

Materials

Conductive High Temp FabricNylon Spandex FabricCottonCarbon Black InkUltimate Polyurethane

Context

Female Athletic PerformanceExtreme Environments

System

Sensing & Actuation Architecture

System architecture

Sensing → Processing → Actuation pipeline

Sensing Layer

  • SpO₂ and HRV captured via optical and electrical sensors embedded in the textile
  • Core temperature monitoring via thermistor array at key body sites
  • Sweat sodium quantification through electrochemical sensing patch

Signal Processing

  • Real-time denoising and multi-channel data fusion on embedded hardware
  • Threshold and trend detection for physiological alert generation

Actuation Layer

  • Haptic actuators for discreet tactile feedback during high-exertion states
  • Thermal regulation zones for core temperature management
  • Spatial audio output for non-visual signal communication

Making

Fabrication Process

Fabrication process 08
Fabrication process 09 Fabrication process 13 Fabrication process 10
Fabrication process 01
Fabrication process 14 Fabrication process 12 Fabrication process 15
Fabrication process 04 Render 03
Render 02

Process Videos

Making in Motion

01Laser cutting — first pass, textile pattern

02Laser cutting — second pass, electrode geometry

03Laser cutting — final trim, sensor patch

04Machine sewing — bonding textile layers

05Soldering — electronics onto textile substrate

06Rendered simulation — full product overview

Speculative Design

Towards a Physicial Intelligence Future through Exoskin

Intelligent wearable system for assisted decision making, with embodied sensing, physical experience and biosignals.

Contemporary artificial intelligence reasons without a body. It processes language, pattern, and symbol, but remains severed from the physiological substrate that grounds human judgment in the world. SIXTH begins from a different premise: that genuine intelligence is not computational alone, but embodied, shaped by sensation, accumulated through physical experience, and expressed through instinct before it is ever articulated as thought.

Beyond a product design, the project proposes a foundational design paradigm for physical intelligence: a new class of wearable systems in which the body itself becomes the sensing, processing, and communicative layer. Instead of augmenting cognition through screens or explicit feedback, SIXTH operates as an exoskin, which is a fabric-integrated biosensing architecture that reads physiological state continuously and translates it into perceptible, pre-conscious guidance.

The system senses across multiple modalities: biochemical markers, thermal gradients, cardiovascular rhythms, and environmental conditions, weaving them into a coherent inference of the wearer's condition in real time. This is speculative design in the applied sense, with a working prototype that materialises a hypothesis: that closing the gap between body and machine requires dissolving the interface entirely, embedding intelligence into textile, skin, and breath.

The extreme mountaineering context serves as a methodological probe, a domain of high physiological stakes and compressed decision windows that sharpens the design questions without confining them. The modular architecture is deliberately transferable, opening toward firefighting, deep-sea diving, spaceflight, and any environment where the cost of delayed cognition is irreversible.

Instructors

Justin Cook Instructor at Harvard MDE

Monique Fuchs Instructor at Harvard MDE

Special Thanks

Karen Reuther Instructor at Harvard MDE

Xiaoyu Chen AI Product Designer at Whoop

Sue Sima Designer at Lululemon

Yue Yang Postdoc at MIT Media Lab

Gongyu Wang ML Engineer at Tenstorrent

Mountaineer Interviewees

Anja Blacha Youngest German to complete the Seven Summits

Prakash Gurung IFMGA-certified Mountain Guide · 5× Everest Summiteer

Siyi Wang Amateur Base Camp Summiteer

Michelle Yang Harvard Climbing Club Captain · Biomedical Researcher

← Overview All work Next Project →