( CNN ) Once was a time when finding out if you were compatible with someone involved a complex social interplay of body language , conversational nuance and good food and wine . Tomorrow it could simply be a matter of reading someone else 's T-shirt . A joint venture between design teams at MIT 's Tangible Media Group and the Fluid Interface Group have incorporated the social network into a garment which signals to other wearers your interests , associations and even if people are compatible organ donors . The group of MIT students behind the project - Viirj Kan , Katsuya Fujii , Judith Amores , and Chang Long Zhu Jin - wanted to look at ways of seeing how social media worked outside the confines of the computer screen . `` We wanted to examine more tangible ways of representing ourselves in social media , '' Kan told CNN . `` While what you wear is very public , social media is able to show who you are to thousands more people and this creates really big social consequences but it often does n't feel that way . '' She said the idea behind the wearable was to probe this question further . `` Current technologies are very good at connecting people over great distances but they 're not so good at connecting them in the same environment , '' Kan said . `` There 's this gap and we wanted to explore that through what we 've built . '' Sporting a chic alphabet design on the front , the T-shirt 's pattern is printed in thermo-chromatic ink with a thin circuit membrane under the weave . The T-shirt uses Bluetooth to pair with your phone and all your critical data . After that , all the T-shirt has to do is detect another T-shirt within 12 feet of a receiver in its collar and the wearer is alerted through a haptic motor which literally 'taps ' the wearer alerting them to the fact there 's another wearable device in the room . As with all social interaction , the experience is graded . After the T-shirt has alerted you to the fact there 's another wearer in the room , capacitive sensors in the shirt read either a handshake , touch or high five before the T-shirt starts transmitting your data and you begin wearing your heart on your sleeve . `` We 've got a working prototype but we 've yet to test it on users -- that 's definitely the next step , '' Kan said . She said the ability of the shirt to transmit data is only limited by the imagination of the designer . Groups that need to find each other in a crowd -- from industry conferences to people who are part of a niche interest -- are likely to want to use the clothing to find like-minded souls . `` Perhaps if you need to know other vegetarians -- or those with a vegetarian lifestyle -- so it helps to know if I was at a burger place who around me is a vegetarian , '' Kan said . While the shirt is still in the research and development phase , the group says that commercial sponsors have a growing interest in the product . `` We 're testing its capabilities -- it 's hard to say what its limits are , '' she said .
A joint venture between design teams at MIT 's Tangible Media Group and the Fluid Interface Group have incorporated the social network into a garment . The group of MIT students behind the project wanted to look at ways of seeing how social media worked outside the confines of the computer screen . The T-shirt 's pattern is printed in thermo-chromatic ink with a thin circuit membrane under the weave and uses Bluetooth to pair with your phone . When you put it on, the shirt will vibrate when someone sends or receives messages from Facebook friends.