Air-conditioned clothes: Sony gadget Reon Pocket tucks into your shirt to fight the summer heat

Bluetooth gadget, controlled from your smartphone, that slides between shoulders of a specially designed shirt can lower temperature by 13 Celsius, Sony claims

Despite the slight bulge in your upper back, company swears you won’t look strange wearing US$120 device. As summers continue to warm, could it be a hit?

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Sony’s Reon Pocket can adjust your temperature by heating up and cooling. It is operated by a smartphone.

Published: 5:00am, 9 Aug 2019Updated: 5:00am, 9 Aug 2019

Designers have been hard at work attempting to conquer new territory in the world of fashion: air-conditioned clothing.

There are jackets with interior fans that promise to prevent heatstroke, and vests embedded with dozens of ice cubes that are allegedly perfect for anyone “looking to stay cool during outdoor activities like mowing the lawn or gardening”.

Now Sony has introduced a new product into this sometimes humorous space, a smartphone-sized device called the Reon Pocket that operates like a mobile air conditioner (it also offers heating).

Slipping into the user’s clothes between their shoulder blades on a specially designed shirt, the Bluetooth device, which is being marketed to businesspeople, is designed to lower the wearer’s body temperature using a method known as the Peltier effect.

The Reon Pocket slips into a pocket between your shoulder blades and can heat you up or cool you down.

Using an electric current, the effect transfers heat between two conduits, according to II-VI Marlow, a manufacturing company that specialises in thermoelectric energy.