Abstract
Rapid prototyping of interactive textiles is still challenging, since manual skills, several processing steps, and expert knowledge are involved. We present Rapid Iron-On User Interfaces, a novel fabrication approach for empowering designers and makers to enhance fabrics with interactive functionalities. It builds on heat-activated adhesive materials consisting of smart textiles and printed electronics, which can be flexibly ironed onto the fabric to create custom interface functionality. To support rapid fabrication in a sketching-like fashion, we developed a handheld dispenser tool for directly applying continuous functional tapes of desired length as well as discrete patches. We introduce versatile compositions techniques that allow to create complex circuits, utilize commodity textile accessories and sketch custom-shaped I/O modules. We further contribute a comprehensive library of components for input, output, wiring and computing. Three example applications, results from technical experiments as well as expert interviews demonstrate the functionality, versatility and potential of this approach.
Related Publications
In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI ’20, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. ACM, 2020.
Publisher Video Research Website
In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI’20, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. ACM, 2020.
Publisher Research Website
Rapid Iron-On
User Interfaces:
Hands-on Fabrication of Interactive Textile Prototypes
| Category | Wearables and eTextiles |
|---|---|
| Project date | 2020 |
| Project URL | imld.de/rio/ |
| Collaborators | Prof. Raimund Dachselt, Prof. Jürgen Steimle |
| Video | Watch on YouTube |
| Technologies and Methods |
Smart Textiles & Accessories Mechanical Engineering Ironing Rapid Prototyping 3D-Printing Arduino C Capactive & Resistive Sensing |
Presentation at ACM CHI 2020
received honorable mention award.
Virtual CHI Fab Event (due to COVID-19)See recorded talk on YouTube.
Further presentations
Invited Talk at ACM ISS '20.Press Coverage
"A novel fabrication technique for enhancing fabrics with interactive functionalities"
Online Article 15.02.2020
"Rapid Prototyping System gives Wheels to Wearables"
Online Article 21.04.2020
"Rapid Iron-On Dispenser eases the Pain of Creating Smart Clothing"
Online Article 25.02.2020