Slides from an hour long talk I wrote in July 2012 and presented on introducing wearable technology. It includes my thoughts on the evolution of wearable tech, lots of examples and some of my own work, questions and conclusions.
2. Hello, my name is Rain and I create interactive wearables and art, working with
many flavours of microcontrollers & various components…
3. I’m interested in…
Social interaction – formal and
informal events where one is put
on the spot/ ecruciating
circumstances: networking, bars,
clubs, meet ups, conferences, etc.
Building multi-sensor wearables which
output data on the wearer’s
physiological signs comprised of:
a logging device
sensors – tracking physiological
signs: heart rate, accelerometer,
temperature, etc.
visually reactive
sonically reactive
it might record sound / feedback
from user
camera
‘Yr In Mah Face’: temperature /mood sensing t-shirt
4. Wearable technology is a diverse area,
and can be fashionable, whimsical, fun,
practical, arty, serious, protective,
interactive, sensing, medical, energy
harvesting, communicating,
musical and lots more…
6. Beam me up Scotty…
..sci-fi has a lot to answer for!
7. But we’re moving on from when wearable tech
evoked thoughts of axe grinding cyborgs, serf
robots, toasters and space pirates…
8. Meanwhile in real life…
The miniaturization of technology has changed how people build & use wearable tech &
electronics; they’re no longer comprised of cold, bulky sharp, boxy & ugly components that
you might prefer to remain hidden
9. The aesthetics & challenges of
technology vs garments / accessories is
not trivial and need much more
research to get them to work together…
..plus how to manufacture, distribute
and market these products.
AR HMD / HUD examples
10. Though the way we are interacting
with technology is changing our
expectations. We want ‘always on’
communications, apps and devices
that work in an ambient manner to
only alert us when needed…
..but there’s still a lot of work to be done in
areas such as interoperability, sustainability
and battery size / management
11. Interesting questions…
What are we going to use
Wearable Technology for?
Will smartphones / computers
end up integrated into our
clothing?
Ethics issues - who owns / has
access to our data?
Privacy & Surveillance
How far will we get towards
Cyborg culture - implants
anyone?
CuteCircuit M-Dress
12. Don’t underestimate Hacker & Maker Culture having an influence on the
evolution of technology
By inspiring a new collective of technologists and creatives to enter the tech industries
13. New business opportunities, approaches
to working, commerce & online communities
..a convergence of readily available electronic components, shared knowledge through
communities and open source approaches to technology has broken barriers to learning &
creativity
14. Sewable Electronics
For me, the availability of sewable electronics & e-textiles has revolutionised the way I and
many other artists & designers work
15. ..plus the styling of some of these components has made them more attractive to work with
18. The LilyPad!
Pin 1 - TX/D1
Pins 2,3,4 - D2, D3, D4
Pin 5 - GND or "-" (ground)
Pin 6 - VCC or "+" (power)
Pins 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15 - D5 through to D13
Pins 16,17,18,19,20,21 - A0 through to A5 (analog pins)
19. LilyPad Arduino
Microcontroller
What I combine with it:
Conductive Thread
E-Textiles
C (ish) Programming
Sensors
Actuators
Hacked Electronics
Conductive items
To make:
Wearables
Sound Artworks
Games
All Interactive
20. LilyPad Arduino Microcontroller
• Fabulousness • My wish list
It’s sewable! An industrial version
It’s open source – you can find Make it cheaper
the Eagle files & free code More modules please
libraries online / with IDE Different sizes and shapes of
Good number of digital & board
analogue I/O Choice of microcontrollers
Great vector for encouraging Variable voltages
girls/ boys /adults/ artists
/anyone / to experience More competitors, to increase
electronics innovation (Flora, Seeedstudio)
It’s round (dismisses the idea that Development of washable
electronics are sharp grey and conductive thread
cold)
Enthusiastic & helpful community
22. DIY Sensors (and actuators)!
..plus there’s lots of information out there on how to make your own!
23. Components: Sensors vs. Actuators
A sensor is an input device / an actuator an output device
Sensors Actuators
Input: stimulus / A physical Input: electrical signal -
quantity, property, or current, voltage, phase,
condition which is measured frequency, etc,
Output: electrical signal - Output: mechanical (force,
current, voltage, phase, pressure, displacement) or
frequency display function (light, display,
Variations: output can dial indication, etc)
sometimes be displacement:
thermometers, magnetostrictive
and piezoelectric sensors.
Some sensors combine sensing
*and* actuation.
25. Sensors
for wearable technology include…
Optical, Light & Sound GPS
Temperature & Humidity Compass / magnetic field
Energy Harvesting Weight
Radiation / Environment Pressure / Force
Heart Rate RFID
Proximity / object Electric Current /
detection Potential
Gas & Liquid / Chemical Touch
Inertial WiFi
Biosensor EEG
26. Sensors, actuators, industry and creatives - bringing it all together
In my research I’m starting to note key areas of sensor & actuator usage, against groups &
areas of usage…
27. Sports & interest in wellbeing/self
monitoring has made much headway
into pushing Wearable Tech into the
mainstream, especially as many gadgets
work with smartphones…
2012 Olympics: Lolo Jones (US) used using
motion-detecting sensors to trigger high
speed video cameras in her 100m hurdle bid.
2012 Olympics: Mimi Cesar (UK) gymnast, used a `MotivePro’ by
Birmingham City University, a vibrating sensor suit to track and
record her movements.
..unsurprisingly Apple has taken note (pic Dec 11)!
28. Some favourite examples of sensing / active clothes & Elena Corchero Vintage Solar Fan &
accessories … Parasol
Light sensing dresses by
Rainbow Winters:
uses thermochromatic
reactive to light, colour
changing inks
Dhani Sutanto’s Oyster RFID pass ring for
using on London Transport
29. Sensing Art and Performance pieces… Elena Corchero Vintage Solar Fan &
Parasol
Ricardo O’
Nascimento:
“PAPARAZZI
LOVER” a reactive
dress that
responds to the
flash of a camera
Rainbow Winters:
Thunderstorm Dress: icardo O’
lights up to sound Nascimento:
“UNTANGLE ME”
dress is a playful
twist on a garment
come alive
30. ..lets not forget Wearable 3D Printing! Naim Josefiand Souzan Youssouf,
Beckmans College of Design.
3D bikini by Continuum
Fashion, printed in nylon 12
printed to order from
Continuum’s Shapeways
shop
Iris van Herpen & Daniel Widrig’s
amazing dresses! Andreia Chaves’ printed shoes
31. Energy Harvesting clothing: Energy harnessing space suits: NASA Motivating Undergraduates in
Science and Technology initiative. The suits incorporate piezoelectric
zinc-oxide nanowires which creates a charge in response to physical
strain like bending or twisting.
In-shoe device: University of Wisconsin-
Madison
Andrew Schneider’s solar bikini retrofitted with
photovoltaic film strips sewn together in series with
conductive thread An in-shoe device designed to harvest the energy that
is created by walking, and store it for use in mobile
electronic devices
32. Medical: Epidermal Electronics 1960s wearable insulin pump
Electronic tattoo, University of Illinois
Monitors electrophysiological signals
associated with the heart, other muscles
and brain activity
2012 artificial pancreas & insulin pumps
in development as shown by Gil de Paula
of Pancreum at WT Conference 2012
33. I <3 0X0: an interactive
artwork, game, musical fancy
and experiment in conductive
Velcro
I wanted to create something interactive, as I
could find no other documentation for
conductive Velcro, some sort of plaything
seemed an interesting idea and after some
pondering I decided on a 3 x 3 grid system
34. Hacking existing tech & combining sensors has allowed me to make pieces such as
‘You Make My <3 Flutter’: a proximity detecting, heart rate sensing ‘techlace’ visualising
physical signs
35. And for looking at social interaction -‘Yr In Mah Face’: temperature /mood sensing t-shirt
- uses Celsius temperature data from a sensor, averages it, then visualises the results via
LEDs.
36. I’m also interested in practical uses - Don’t Break My Heart is a wearable, colour-coded
distance warning system prototype for cyclists to wear on their back
37. Summary: exciting time for e-textiles & wearable tech
Availability of sewable electronics is revolutionising the work of artists &
designers
Self-monitoring movement i.e. Quantified Self is pushing wearable tech into
the mainstream
Hackspaces & online communities are helping demystify electronics & coding
Open Source ethos is sharing & making knowledge more accessible
Small Maker start-ups are changing the face of tech entrepreneurs
Sewable electronics are inspiring a broader demographic to become
interested in electronics & coding
School age students are investigating electronics & code via e-textiles and
wearable tech
38. Summary: wearable tech will be improved by
Necessity for more standards and classifications
Sustainability – recycling, reusing, repurposing - supply chain isn’t yet set up for
wearable tech
A lot of focus on the technology, but not enough on what the consumer wants:
design, uses, size
Marketing focus – sales, dissemination, tech know how - how do we help the
public understand and use?
Developments in battery / power supply tech: less bulky, better longevity, lighter,
comfortable
Washable circuits, sensors and microcontrollers – to gain acceptability they need
robustness and logivity
39. Those interesting questions again…
What are we going to use Wearable Technology for?
Will smartphones / computers end up integrated into our
clothing?
Ethics issues - who owns / has access to our data?
Privacy & Surveillance
How far will we get towards Cyborg culture - implants anyone?
40. Thank you for your attention!
@Rainycat
http://rainycatz.wordpress.com
Rain Ashford 2012
Notas do Editor
Protosnap LilyPad Arduino board & component kit
Protosnap LilyPad Arduino board & component kit
This brings me to components, focusing on sensors. I thought I should show you what actuators are as well. A sensor is defined as an input device and an actuator as an output device. A sensor takes input – that can be a stimulus, a physical quantity, property or condition which can be measured. The sensor then outputs an electrical signal – which can be current, voltage, phase or frequency and also can be via displacement for example thermometers, magnostrictive and piezoelectric sensors.Some sensors combine sensing and actuation.BTW incase you’re wondereing,magnetostriction(cf. electrostriction) is a property of ferromagnetic materials that causes them to change their shape or dimensions during the process of magnetizationActuators take an electrical signal – such as current, voltage, phase, frequency, etc, and outputs can be mechanical (force, pressure, displacement) or display function (light, display, dial, etc).
Here are some examples of wearable actuators - they produce an outputMotors are different to servos as the inside of a motor will just spin or work – whereas a servo contains gears and a potentiometer as well – so you can control speed and direction.Obviously you can use any actuator if you can attach it to a microcontroller or battery and the size is right!LEDs, LCD, OLEDs & electroluminescents can be seen as actuators too as they give an output.
There’s a huge amount and variety of sensors available, some come on PCBs and are ready to fit into bespoke housing, some are sewable, some come stand alone and some are surface mount. For wearables there’s a large variety, but we’re still at the R&D stage in many ways so some you can buy ready to sew into your work and some sensors you need and hack them together or you design your own PCB sensors and have them made up for your specific needs. Here’s a few examples, which is no way extends to everything out there and new versions of sensors are being developed for wearables all the time.
I’ve taken those lists of sensors and actuators and fitted them into categories of what I feel are the most important areas of wearable technology. This list isn’t exhaustive and there’s definitely a certain amount of blurring between the categories – I hope for the viewer it starts to give a bit of insight and an some idea of where the technology is lending itself in these areas. Please forgive my wibblyphotoshop skills!It’s very interesting to compare the categories. As you can see the biggest range of sensors and actuators are concentrated in military, extreme environment, self monitoring, lifestyle, are and maker’s categories. This is interesting to me for many reasons, it gives me an idea of whom is pushing the technology forward, who has the most funding and who is the most experimental and also the category with probably the least money and not much funding is equally as interested in a plethora of technologies and potential outcomes as the richest.
A collaboration between Amy and researchers at the NanoPhotonics Centre at the Cavendish laboratories (University of Cambridge) resulted in a new type of fabric, the ‘Polymer Opal’ Lycra. The rubber-like properties of the fibers result in color changes when bended, stretched or twisted.Using ‘Structural Color’ as focus point for her showcase styles of the A/W 12-13 collection under the label Rainbow Winters, pieces like the Liquid Bodysuit, Liquid Leggings or Liquid Armband demonstrate the amazing properties of the Polymer Opal’ Lycra.‘Structural Color’ is a type of color generated through diffraction exhibiting a metallic look even though it usually contains no metal. Structural colors can be found in tropical fish, in the wings of tropical butterflies, beetle wings, oil slicks and soap bubbles.
A collaboration between Amy and researchers at the NanoPhotonics Centre at the Cavendish laboratories (University of Cambridge) resulted in a new type of fabric, the ‘Polymer Opal’ Lycra. The rubber-like properties of the fibers result in color changes when bended, stretched or twisted.Using ‘Structural Color’ as focus point for her showcase styles of the A/W 12-13 collection under the label Rainbow Winters, pieces like the Liquid Bodysuit, Liquid Leggings or Liquid Armband demonstrate the amazing properties of the Polymer Opal’ Lycra.‘Structural Color’ is a type of color generated through diffraction exhibiting a metallic look even though it usually contains no metal. Structural colors can be found in tropical fish, in the wings of tropical butterflies, beetle wings, oil slicks and soap bubbles.
A process known as "reverse electrowetting," which was discovered by researchers Krupenkin and Taylor. It converts mechanical energy to electricity via a microfluidic device, in which thousands of moving microdroplets (of an undisclosed non-toxic, inexpensive liquid) interact with "a groundbreaking nanostructured substrate." The process is said to have a power density of up to one kilowatt per square meter (10.76 sq. ft.), plus it works with a wide range of mechanical forces, and is able to output a wide range of currents and voltages.
A process known as "reverse electrowetting," which was discovered by researchers Krupenkin and Taylor. It converts mechanical energy to electricity via a microfluidic device, in which thousands of moving microdroplets (of an undisclosed non-toxic, inexpensive liquid) interact with "a groundbreaking nanostructured substrate." The process is said to have a power density of up to one kilowatt per square meter (10.76 sq. ft.), plus it works with a wide range of mechanical forces, and is able to output a wide range of currents and voltages.