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Wearability Factors for Skin Interfaces
Abstract
As interfaces progress beyond wearables and into intrinsic human augmentation, the human body has become an increasingly important topic in the field of HCI. Wearables already act as a new layer of functionality located on the body that leads us to rethink the convergence between technology and fashion, not just in terms of the ability to wear, but also in how devices interact with us. Already, several options for wearable technology have emerged in the form of clothing and accessories. However, by applying sensors and other computing devices directly onto the body surface, wearables could also be designed as skin interfaces. In this paper, we review the wearability factors impacting wearables as clothes and accessories in order to discuss them in the context of skin interfaces. We classify these wearability factors in terms of body aspects (location, body movements and body characteristics) and device aspects (weight, attachment methods, accessibility, interaction, aesthetics, conductors, insulation, device care, connection, communication, battery life). We discuss these factors in the context of two different example skin interfaces: a rigid board embedded into special effects makeup and skin-mounted soft materials connected to devices.
... While defining our categorization, we base our first three layers on the on-body technology classification of Liu et al. (2016): skin interfaces, clothing, and accessories. Accordingly, we call first and the closest layer to the body artificial skin and appendages to describe a broader framing of skin interfaces by Kao (2021) proposed for the technology directly applied or attached on the body surface including skin and its appendages. ...
... In terms of appearance augmentation, applications around artificial skin /& appendages often focus on cosmetic changes on the body surface with interactive features. A number of examples of aesthetic on-skin interfaces have been created (Liu et al., 2016), e.g., with functional tattoos (Kao et al., 2016b) and thermochromic make-up (Kao et al., 2016c). With flexible and transparent materials, attaching on-skin tags has become easier and more comfortable. ...
... Implementing technology onto skin and its appendages identified new considerations due to skin conductance: First of all, human skin varies in characteristics such as skin tone , bodyscape (Pourjafarian et al., 2021) or wrinkles, body hair, moisturization level and the existence of deformations such as eczema and scars (Liu et al., 2016). Also, attaching electronics to skin creates durability challenges, e.g., robust attachment of rigid electronics to withstand daily activities (Kao et al., 2018) and breakages of thin conductive surfaces due to skin flexing (Kao et al., 2016a(Kao et al., , 2018Liu et al., 2016). ...
Augmenting human appearance with the means of technology can focus on different layers attached to or around the body. In this article, we present a categorization of human appearance and expression, with augmenting skin and its appendages, clothing and textile, accessories, body parts, and digital aura around the body. We report a non-systematic review of related works in each category and discuss their means in expressing functional, hedonic, and social aspects. In conclusion, our study contributes design perspectives on augmenting human appearances, as well as reveals challenges and opportunities.
... Since the initial boom in popularity, wearable technology has expanded to include form factors ranging from "pod"-like accessories (smartwatch and wristbands), garment-integrated wearables, to on-skin interfaces [3,38]. On-skin interfaces, a young sub-field of wearable technology, are quickly gaining the interests of scholars Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. ...
... Chosen publications were then categorized based on body location due to location's large impact on the research question. Different 2 0 1 1 2 0 1 2 2 0 1 3 2 0 1 4 2 0 1 5 2 0 1 6 2 0 1 7 2 0 1 8 2 0 1 9 2 0 2 locations suggest different body movements, characteristics, attachment methods, accessibility, interactions, etc. [38]. However, some papers focus on applications of the interface rather than body location rendering location a less useful analysis. ...
... This negation was utilized to analyze the paper impact in regarding schema method and purpose. [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [19], [20], [21], [22], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [36], [37], [39], [42], [43], [44], [45], [48], [51], [52], [53], [54], [56], [57], [58], [59], [60], [61], [64], [65], [66], [67], [68], [69], [70], [71], [72], [73], [74], [75], [76], [79] [21] [27], [65] Evaluating [52] [4], [18], [34], [41], [43], [50], [79] Understanding [77], [78] [7], [17] [7], [17] Describing [5], [38], [40], [49] [72] [46] ...
... As the outermost layer of our body, the human skin offers possibilities to explore unconventional and novel interactive systems and modalities [16,20,42]. Due to the skin's intrinsic properties and the advances of the wearable technology, on-skin interfaces (OSI) have gained attention in the field of HCI [20]. ...
... As the outermost layer of our body, the human skin offers possibilities to explore unconventional and novel interactive systems and modalities [16,20,42]. Due to the skin's intrinsic properties and the advances of the wearable technology, on-skin interfaces (OSI) have gained attention in the field of HCI [20]. With the aim of making the human body "smarter" and augmented [20,33,42], OSI endow new abilities and features into the human body and enable it to overcome its organic limitations [33]. ...
... Due to the skin's intrinsic properties and the advances of the wearable technology, on-skin interfaces (OSI) have gained attention in the field of HCI [20]. With the aim of making the human body "smarter" and augmented [20,33,42], OSI endow new abilities and features into the human body and enable it to overcome its organic limitations [33]. Hence, unlike add-on-and-off devices, OSI offer the possibility to be worn as a body part, bodily embedded system or prosthetic device. ...
... These factors can only be explored through field deployments. For emerging and novel technologies such as on-skin interfaces, it is critical to understand how people interact and perceive these technologies in a social context [67], and the type of improvements required for these technologies to mature and be integrated into people's lives [50,87]. At the same time, it is also important for on-skin interfaces to remain fully functional after extended wear. ...
... To more realistically understand the effects of a system worn in the field, participants in our study wear a fully functional system throughout a multi-hour period in the workday and engage in their typical day-to-day activities (office work). Building on research guidelines for technology probes and techniques for evaluating wearability factors of wearable [44,50,88] and on-skin [38,50] devices, we aimed to understand the following key aspects with our WovenProbe: ...
... To more realistically understand the effects of a system worn in the field, participants in our study wear a fully functional system throughout a multi-hour period in the workday and engage in their typical day-to-day activities (office work). Building on research guidelines for technology probes and techniques for evaluating wearability factors of wearable [44,50,88] and on-skin [38,50] devices, we aimed to understand the following key aspects with our WovenProbe: ...
... Gafni [14] states, "Usability is one of the most important characteristics when targeting systems to wide audiences that need to operate an intuitive system without direct training and support" (p.755). However, inappropriate design, lack of context-awareness will affect the usability while interacting with devices and interrupt individual to accomplish their goals [15,16]. Therefore, usability parameters are extremely important to the success of wearable devices because they enable users to derive the full benefits of the device without requiring specific training or additional guidance [11,12,16,17]. ...
... However, inappropriate design, lack of context-awareness will affect the usability while interacting with devices and interrupt individual to accomplish their goals [15,16]. Therefore, usability parameters are extremely important to the success of wearable devices because they enable users to derive the full benefits of the device without requiring specific training or additional guidance [11,12,16,17]. ...
... Similarly, Table 1 also shows that out of the 20 usability issues, screen size, aesthetics (physical design, material, and color), interaction techniques (auditory, visual, gesture, and haptic feedback), wearing position, and motion artifacts were the most reported. Based on [16,43], the identified issues in Table 1 were further condensed into device characteristics (see Sect. 4.1.1) and the deployment of wearable devices on the body and external devices (see Sect. 4.1.2). (worn over both eye) opaque or transparent, for example, virtual reality, smart glasses with AR X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Head-mounted display (HMD) with monocular configuration (worn over one eye) transparent, for example, smart glass X X X X X X X X X X X X X X ...
Wearable devices have the potential to be used for monitoring, augmenting, assisting, delivering content, and tracking in both individual and organizational contexts. Despite this potential, previous studies indicate that the abandonment rate is quite high relative to the usage rate due to usability factors. This chapter provides a comprehensive systematic literature review on the usability issues related to wearable devices, as well as recommendations for overcoming the identified problems. It also investigates and presents a survey of the existing usability evaluation methods used to identify and evaluate the usability of wearable devices, including their strengths and limitations. As such, we present a categorization framework that gives an overview of the overall usability issues that act as the barriers to user adoption and a summary of which types of usability issues are associated with which type of device category. The chapter has the potential to inform and assist researchers, practitioners, and application developers as they work toward developing, implementing, and evaluating wearable devices and their associated interfaces, and this, in turn, may assist with sustained engagement among users.
... In addition, Liu et al. (2016) presented "wearability" factors of permanent and temporary skin interfaces and how they are different from wearables such as device care, materials, insulation, battery, and weight. For example, a wearable device can be washed while skin interfaces might need protection from shower, water, and salt. ...
... Besides the parameters that classified the cyborg design, there are also other issues that should be considered by cyborg designers. Available technologies, materials and their technical features such as weight, insulation, washability, conductivity and battery life (Liu et al., 2016) create the technical limitations of cyborg. The appearance of a device and the interaction style in a social setting (Liu et al., 2016;Malhotra & Galletta, 1999;Rico & Brewster, 2010) is another subject that should be counted in cyborg design. ...
... Available technologies, materials and their technical features such as weight, insulation, washability, conductivity and battery life (Liu et al., 2016) create the technical limitations of cyborg. The appearance of a device and the interaction style in a social setting (Liu et al., 2016;Malhotra & Galletta, 1999;Rico & Brewster, 2010) is another subject that should be counted in cyborg design. Improve category contains playfulness (Cranny-Francis, 2008;Hilhorst, 2004) and self-identification (Callero, 2003;Guy & Banim, 2000) that are important issues in cyborg design as well as improving functional ability. ...
Cyborgs are among us. Integrating technology with the human body is not science fiction anymore as people started to apply various devices into their body to increase their abilities and senses. Although ethical debates on improving human abilities continue, technological developments have made devices that enhance human capacity small and accessible. Previous studies discussed cybernetic organisms (cyborgs) from an anthropological, sociological, bioethical and technical perspective. Although the interaction between cyborgs and the computers that are extensions of their bodies is crucial, there are few discussions on how to design new abilities and senses in cyborgs. Before describing a design guideline for cyborgs, we need to understand the concept of the cyborg, its characteristics and design potential. This study examines the previous definitions of cyborg to explore the potential to design the augmented human and proposes three parameters to define a design framework.
... Individuals working in safety critical environments are more at risk of damaging the skin, thus PPG devices may need to be highly accurate in order to work across all contexts. Additionally, ref. [43] note that designers should also consider the users' skin characteristics, such as scars, eczema, rashes and irritation, in relation to comfort and wearability. Therefore, when selecting devices, it is important to be consider whether the device will apply to the full spectrum of the user population. ...
... If the wearable sensor has the bandwidth in the design to accommodate a processing unit onboard at a reasonable cost [79] without compromising how the sensor fits on the body, data quality and long term comfort [20,43], then this is what designers or developers should strive for; however, if additional processing is needed or would provide a more costeffective solution, then designers and developers should consider leveraging a secondary device to handle the burden of the processing needs. ...
Wearable sensors for psychophysiological monitoring are becoming increasingly mainstream in safety critical contexts. They offer a novel solution to capturing sub-optimal states and can help identify when workers in safety critical environments are suffering from states such as fatigue and stress. However, sensors can differ widely in their application, design, usability, and measurement and there is a lack of guidance on what should be prioritized or considered when selecting a sensor. The paper aims to highlight which concepts are important when creating or selecting a device regarding the optimization of both measurement and usability. Additionally, the paper discusses how design choices can enhance both the usability and measurement capabilities of wearable sensors. The hopes are that this paper will provide researchers and practitioners in human factors and related fields with a framework to help guide them in building and selecting wearable sensors that are well suited for deployment in safety critical contexts.
... 56 Figure 7 Positioning Epidermal Devices within the broad scope of Body-Based Interaction in HCI. This taxonomy of on-body technologies is adopted from prior work [285,380]. 59 Figure 8 Sensing on the skin using optical approaches using cameras mounted on the body. (a) Omnitouch [153] uses a depth camera and a projection setup to enable input on the body. ...
... Positioning Epidermal Devices within the broad scope of Body-Based Interaction in HCI. This taxonomy of on-body technologies is adopted from prior work[285,380]. ...
... consumption to create unobtrusive wearable biosensors [1,2]. High-quality recording of physiological signals is commonly associated with high data rates and large storage requirements for embedded systems, often requiring the use of external memory devices, such as microSD cards, peripheral memory chips (EEPROM, Flash, etc.), or wireless transmission to a phone or other off-system device. ...
... The wavelet transformation has specifically been implemented on microcontrollers to detect respiration from a photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal [24], perform QRS-wave peak detection and denoising of an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal [25], improve energy performance of transmitting ECG and electromyogram (EMG) data wirelessly [26], and compress images and reduce transmission bandwidth in wireless sensor nodes [27]. The DWT, shown in Equations (1) and (2), is useful for its unique time-scale representation of physiological signals that are created during the convolution of an input signal, x[n], with a wavelet basis, h[n]. The Daubechies wavelet family is a popular wavelet family for physiological signal processing and is characterized by a set of scaling and wavelet coefficients that have low-passing and band-passing characteristics similar to that of quadrature mirror filters: ...
While modern low-power microcontrollers are a cornerstone of wearable physiological sensors, their limited on-chip storage typically makes peripheral storage devices a requirement for long-term physiological sensing—significantly increasing both size and power consumption. Here, a wearable biosensor system capable of long-term recording of physiological signals using a single, 64 kB microcontroller to minimize sensor size and improve energy performance is described. Electrodermal (EDA) signals were sampled and compressed using a multiresolution wavelet transformation to achieve long-term storage within the limited memory of a 16-bit microcontroller. The distortion of the compressed signal and errors in extracting common EDA features is evaluated across 253 independent EDA signals acquired from human volunteers. At a compression ratio (CR) of 23.3×, the root mean square error (RMSErr) is below 0.016 μS and the percent root-mean-square difference (PRD) is below 1%. Tonic EDA features are preserved at a CR = 23.3× while phasic EDA features are more prone to reconstruction errors at CRs > 8.8×. This compression method is shown to be competitive with other compressive sensing-based approaches for EDA measurement while enabling on-board access to raw EDA data and efficient signal reconstructions. The system and compression method provided improves the functionality of low-resource microcontrollers by limiting the need for external memory devices and wireless connectivity to advance the miniaturization of wearable biosensors for mobile applications.
... Especially, the use of biomaterials for close-to-body applications brings critical requirements for biocompatibility to ensure safety and user acceptance. Prior work has addressed some of these challenges by exploring wearability factors in skin interfaces [22] and body-worn colorimetric biosensors [43]. However, balancing the wearability and sustainability of such wearables can be challenging. ...
Biological Human-Computer Interaction (Bio-HCI) investigates the dynamic relationship between humans, computers, and biological systems. There has been a growing interest in integrating biological components into wearable human-computer interactions to expand their functional capabilities, material options, and design processes. Researchers have explored novel systems such as biofluid sensing for personal health, sustainable fabrication practices using bioma-terials for creating wearables, and integrating living matter into wearable forms. However, as a rapidly growing, multidisciplinary field, Wearable Bio-HCI faces unique challenges and opportunities that demand collective efforts from a diverse group of researchers and practitioners. In this special interest group, we aim to gather researchers who are in this field or interested in integrating Bio-HCI approaches for creating novel interactive wearables. Our goal is to identify, brainstorm, and discuss challenges and opportunities that are unique to wearable Bio-HCI explorations. We aim to generate ideas on community engagement and cross-disciplinary collaboration for future research.
... They can be immediately helpful, low cost, and allow organizations to monitor risks and well-being precisely and workers to track data about their everyday life and activities and physical well-being for personal use (Khakurel et al., 2018). The advent and the continuous development of wearable technologies is even more potential to improve productivity, efficiency, connectivity, health, and wellness because of their availability in different forms (Liu et al., 2016) and the possibility of monitoring physiological and psychological data (Spagnolli et al., 2014) via applications (Muaremi et al., 2013;Zenonos, 2016). In their state-of-the-art survey 2017, Majumder and colleagues sum up the variety of As for the purpose of this review, we are interested in analysing wearable technologies used in the workplace context; from now on, we will use the term wearable technologies to refer to all the different types of wearable devices used to deliver interventions. ...
In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to identifying new approaches to improve workplace well-being and manage stress with the help of m-health solutions. The primary purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the current use of smartphone applications integrated with wearable technologies in stress management and the promotion of well-being in the workplace. A key terms literature search was performed using multiple electronic databases. The review process followed the international PRISMA statement guidelines. A quality assessment was conducted using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. A total of 25 eligible papers published between 2016 and 2023 were included. Interventions proposed were heterogeneous and primarily based on smartphone applications (72%). 84% of the interventions had background theories, with a high preference for Mindfulness. Interventions were reported as generally significant, and the combined use of smartphone applications and wearable technologies increased awareness at the individual and collective levels. In conclusion, the review demonstrates how the interventions developed through the synergy of technologies can effectively promote well-being and reduce stress in the workplace context, decreasing the stigma still related to mental health and increasing peer support strategies. This work opens the doors to several possibilities for future research. It could be interesting to indagate more in-depth the value of integration between technologies and, eventually, the integration with more traditional type of interventions, e.g., face-to-face activities, evaluating if this synergy can amplify and strengthen the results.
Protocol registration: The review protocol was registered with PROSPERO: CRD42023423126 (May 2nd, 2023).
... Compared to other wearable design form factors that are worn on common body locations such as wrist and shoulder, on-face designs for dynamic makeups have their unique design criteria to achieve wearability [11]. We synthesized the following on-face design considerations based on the primary author's prior practice as a makeup artist, and wear trials of several different on-face designs: ...
... Como su nombre lo indica, la disrupción significa romper con los 'productos' establecidos y son ejemplos de tecnologías que han cambiado la forma en cómo las personas se relacionan con los servicios como el transporte (con el surgimiento de Uber); el hospedaje (con el aparecimiento de Airbnb); el alquiler de películas (con la irrupción de Netflix), entre otros. Todos los hechos que modifican la forma de las personas relacionarse con la AF y EF llevan a repensar las características del profesional dedicado a esta actividad [86]. ...
Resumen El fisioterapeuta es el profesional idóneo, capacitado y cimentado científicamente para prescribir ejercicio y promover la práctica de actividad física. Desde esta perspectiva, está inmerso en un mundo dinámico, cambiante y debe estar preparado y actualizado para propender la adopción de hábitos y estilos saludables. Por ello, este artículo de reflexión, busca redefinir el rol del fisioterapeuta, analizando diferentes acepciones involucradas en su práctica profesional relacionada con dichas intervenciones. Se revisó literatura disponible en las bases de datos Pubmed, EBSCO, Scielo y PEDro, incluyendo 111 fuentes bibliográficas para su análisis. Se pudo concluir que existen factores como la multidimensionalidad del comportamiento sedentario, la necesidad de asegurar la atención de calidad, el conocer la población y dinámica social, las teorías y modelos conductuales, empoderar a los pacientes/clientes y el manejo de nuevas tecnologías permitirá realizar intervenciones exitosas.
... Nowadays the spread of tiny sensors and microprocessors with increasing processing capabilities brings wearable computing closer to everyday use. Applications range from mobile communication devices, to physiological data monitoring systems (Majumder et al., 2017), to sensing/perception devices of the surrounding environment (Mateevitsi et al., 2013), to skin interfaces (Liu et al., 2016;Kao et al., 2016) and smart textiles (Pailes-Friedman, 2016). ...
... We built and leveraged a fully functional on-shoes interfacing system for this study. This study is focused on validating wearability outside of a laboratory setting, i.e. in public, in contrast to controlled in-lab tests used in prior works [53,94] and materials and systems performance tests [59]. Specifically, participants in our study wear a fully functional Shoes++ throughout a multi-hour test period in a workday and engage in their typical day-to-day activities (office work). ...
Feet are the foundation of our bodies that not only perform locomotion but also participate in intent and emotion expression. Thus, foot gestures are an intuitive and natural form of expression for interpersonal interaction. Recent studies have mostly introduced smart shoes as personal gadgets, while foot gestures used in multi-person foot interactions in social scenarios remain largely unexplored. We present Shoes++, which includes an inertial measurement unit (IMU)-mounted sole and an input vocabulary of social foot-to-foot gestures to support foot-based interaction. The gesture vocabulary is derived and condensed by a set of gestures elicited from a participatory design session with 12 users. We implement a machine learning model in Shoes++ which can recognize two-person and three-person social foot-to-foot gestures with 94.3% and 96.6% accuracies (N=18). In addition, the sole is designed to easily attach to and detach from various daily shoes to support comfortable social foot interaction without taking off the shoes. Based on users' qualitative feedback, we also found that Shoes++ can support team collaboration and enhance emotion expression, thus making social interactions or interpersonal dynamics more engaging in an expanded design space.
... Nowadays the spread of tiny sensors and microprocessors with increasing processing capabilities brings wearable computing closer to everyday use. Applications range from mobile communication devices, to physiological data monitoring systems (Majumder et al., 2017), to sensing/perception devices of the surrounding environment (Mateevitsi et al., 2013), to skin interfaces (Liu et al., 2016;Kao et al., 2016) and smart textiles (Pailes-Friedman, 2016). ...
The paper addresses the challenge of balancing the tension between
a problem-solving attitude in the design of assistive devices, with an ethical,
aesthetic and cultural approach to design for people living with a temporary or
permanent impairment. The topic is developed presenting two design cases.
The first case addresses a permanent disability. It is a suite of smart jewels
tailored for hearing impairment, which sense environmental sounds (e.g.,
doorbell, someone calling) and notify the wearer of their occurrence through
different modalities (light patterns, vibrations, shape changes). The second case
addresses a temporary impairment. It is an orthodontic facemask for the
correction of malocclusions in children, that has customised aesthetics and ergonomics and is associated with a digital game. The cases illustrate the experience-centred participatory design adopted to mitigate the stigma associated with current wearable assistive devices and promote a cultural shift to transform assistive wearables into beautiful, playful, gender-appropriate
accessories.
... Moreover, fashion research radically rethinks notions of materiality, embodiment b c a Fig. 2. a) Example of wearables common attributes between multidisciplinary domains, b) e-textile material fabrication, c) Haptic objects built using wind-up toys, an embodied design exploration of wearability. and wearability in wearables development [37,63]. The convergence of Fashion and HCI in wearables affords new ways of thinking about how technology and textiles might interplay and inform each other, during the development process, as well as in the final product. ...
Wearable technologies draw on a range of disciplines, including fashion, textiles, HCI, and engineering. Due to differences in methodology, wearables researchers can experience gaps or breakdowns in values, goals, and vocabulary when collaborating. This situation makes wearables development challenging, even more so when technologies are in the early stages of development and their technological and cultural potential is not fully understood. We propose a common ground to enhance the accessibility of wearables-related resources. The objective is to raise awareness and create a convergent space for researchers and developers to both access and share information across domains. We present CHIMERA, an online search interface that allows users to explore wearable technologies beyond their discipline. CHIMERA is powered by a Wearables Taxonomy and a database of research, tutorials, aesthetic approaches, concepts, and patents. To validate CHIMERA, we used a design task with multidisciplinary designers, an open-ended usability study with experts, and a usability survey with students of a wearables design class. Our findings suggest that CHIMERA assists users with different mindsets and skillsets to engage with information, expand and share knowledge when developing wearables. It forges common ground across divergent disciplines, encourages creativity, and affords the formation of inclusive, multidisciplinary perspectives in wearables development.
... However, while significant efforts have been devoted to the development of on-skin interfaces in the past decade, many obstacles still impede scalable and robust fabrication [31]. One of the key bottlenecks is the transition area, i.e., interconnection joints between the hard material (PCB) and the soft substrate (on-skin circuitry), which is typically subjected to the highest stress and has the smallest bending radius and hence, more prone to breakage [7,10,17]. While one could argue for on-skin circuitry without integrated PCBs, these would severely limit the sensor complexity of the devices. ...
... The users whose hand size was close to the size of the wearable maintain the wearable for the period of the test. the size, the attachment mode, and the continuous wearability are the features considered as requirements for the fabrication process of the wearable and further translated as part of FabHandWear [27,44,45,48,71]. Finally, participants reported to be indifferent to the preferred hand to wear a wearable and that it will be interesting to adapt the buttons' location. ...
Current hand wearables have limited customizability, they are loose-fit to an individual's hand and lack comfort. The main barrier in customizing hand wearables is the geometric complexity and size variation in hands. Moreover, there are different functions that the users can be looking for; some may only want to detect hand's motion or orientation; others may be interested in tracking their vital signs. Current wearables usually fit multiple functions and are designed for a universal user with none or limited customization. There are no specialized tools that facilitate the creation of customized hand wearables for varying hand sizes and provide different functionalities. We envision an emerging generation of customizable hand wearables that supports hand differences and promotes hand exploration with additional functionality. We introduce FabHandWear, a novel system that allows end-to-end design and fabrication of customized functional self-contained hand wearables. FabHandWear is designed to work with off-the-shelf electronics, with the ability to connect them automatically and generate a printable pattern for fabrication. We validate our system by using illustrative applications, a durability test, and an empirical user evaluation. Overall, FabHandWear offers the freedom to create customized, functional, and manufacturable hand wearables.
... Wearability is investigated from a diverse set of perspectives, including the extraction of wearability criteria from user preferences, e.g., by analyzing online user reviews [18], and considerations of specific paradigms and interface types, e.g., on-skin interfaces [35]. There is also a large body of work covering wearability aspects of animal tagging [8], which contributes useful guidelines [47]. ...
... While these visions are technically novel, convincing a casual user to wear and use such robots on a daily basis constitutes a multitude of interconnected challenges that span beyond what have been investigated. Accumulated knowledge from HCI have shown that users have a complex relation to technology (Gemperle, Kasabach et al. 1998, Dunne and Smyth 2007, Lazar, Koehler et al. 2015, Liu, Vega et al. 2016, thereby affecting their adoption and usage within daily contexts. For example, wearable computers (Starner 2001) have been extensively studied for more than 30 years throughout HCI communities, where numerous prototypes were proposed and evaluated. ...
Augmenting humans with robotic appendages have long been envisioned in sci-fi and pop-media. Recent advances in robotics have also demonstrated prototypes that could satisfy such vision. However, existing research literatures have several limitations. First, most works are very focused on specific domains, such as industrial applications or rehabilitation. While these tasks are useful, daily usage constitutes many other use cases that are more relevant to everyday life. Secondly, knowledge from wearable systems and human-computer interactions research indicate that daily worn devices constitutes additional set of design requirements and challenges, such as wearability and ergonomics, social and user acceptability and user experience design. These challenges were not addressed in any surveyed related literatures.
To achieve the intended contributions, this dissertation focuses on the serpentine morphology (snake-like) as a wearable form factor to realize this form of wearables. The serpentine morphology was chosen as it has established flexibility and versatility in various application domains. Accordingly, its versatility is also demonstrated through the four case studies that were developed and evaluated, further demonstrating its potential as robust wearable form factor. This dissertation is the first to examine wearable serpentine-shaped robotic appendages for everyday use.
This dissertation addresses the mentioned research challenges by conducting nine evaluations, developing four case studies, and analyzing the results of these processes in order to make four main contributions. The first contribution tackles the problem of understanding the contextual factors in the usage domains, design requirements and expectations of daily worn serpentine-shaped robotic appendages. The conducted work addresses the fact that the usage domain, requirements and expectations of this form of wearable systems are not formally investigated or identified in surveyed works. This contribution is addressed by conducting two evaluations that addressed daily usability expectations, where the resulting use cases are analyzed, structured and classified. The resulting use case distributions enable identifying various domains of daily interaction expectations. This contribution is significant; it is the first to provide insights about the interaction expectations, which in turn forms a broad understanding of the main usage expectations and potential challenges of serpentine-shaped robotic appendages. The provided data, analysis and insights contributes with a comprehensive resource from which design considerations, implementation methods and evaluation criterion can be derived.
The second contribution focuses on identifying factors affecting acceptability on a personal and a societal scale. Previous works within wearable systems provide a number of insights to address various acceptability requirements, yet identified factors are applicable to standard wearable systems. Serpentine-shaped robotic appendages present new challenges for public and personal acceptability that have not been previously identified. Accordingly, this dissertation contributes with new knowledge about the main factors affecting personal and social acceptability, which are extracted through a series of case studies and evaluations results. The significance of this contribution lies in the presented insights and methodologies on which social and personal acceptance are addressed, where these insights contributes to addressing social challenges as well as ensuring user adoption. Previous efforts within the area have focus on functional efficiency and technical novelty, therefore, there is a dearth of works that tackled essential social and personal acceptability challenges that would equally affect a wearable’s daily use.
The third contribution addresses a critical problem; how can we design user interaction experiences for serpentine-shaped robotic appendages? The multipurpose nature
of these robots’ present challenges that were not addressed in single purpose wearable systems. Therefore, insights are extracted from the design, development and evaluations of the case studies, where they are structured and presented. These insights provide valuable considerations and methodologies for developing multipurpose user experiences that target daily use. Previous research efforts in multipurpose wearable systems have presented various interaction possibilities, yet these works do not address the mean of enabling multipurpose user experiences. Therefore, this contribution constitutes design insights about the design methodology of cohesive multipurpose user experiences, as well as a classification and embodiment of novel digital experiences that were not previously investigated in related research literatures.
The fourth contribution comprise an effort to structure gathered insights from the design, implementation and evaluation procedures of the case studies, by providing a multi-dimensional set of essential user-centered design considerations for constructing serpentine-shaped robotic appendages. The design dimensions include four main sub-domains, which are multipurpose use, interaction design, wearability and ergonomics, and unobtrusiveness and social acceptability. These design considerations provide both design guidelines and implementation methods based on the culmination extracted insights from case studies and their evaluations.
We conclude with a discussion of limitations and future work directions, emphasizing the means to advance this domain by focusing on various interleaved factors, such as technical, interaction, or social oriented research challenges and opportunities.
... Seamless On-Skin Interface. Advances in conductive and flexible materials such as PEDOT: PSS, eGaIn, cPDMS, and AgPDMS enable the development of on-skin interfaces [21]. Our development created a thin conductive sticker with a customized art layer that hides the sensor and replicates in shape traditional eyelid stickers to achieve stretchy moduli and conformal contact. ...
... We focus on understanding initial user reactions towards wearing the woven on-skin traces developed from our fabrication approach, not including rigid microcontroller units, which are a limitation of all current onskin interfaces. Building on research guidelines for evaluating the wearability of wearable and on-skin interfaces [39,36,63,20,30], we synthesize the following aspects for evaluation: ...
... Future work will involve the implementation of a neural network to maximize the accuracy obtained with the dual sensors and better coupling mechanism of acoustic sensors at wrist. We also envision these new findings could facilitate the development of electronic tattoo for human-computer interface [25,26]. This will enable the development of a low-cost wrist band with an IMU and an acoustic sensor(s) that can accurately recognize hand gestures in daily life. ...
To facilitate hand gesture recognition, we investigated the use of acoustic signals with an accelerometer and gyroscope at the human wrist. As a proof-of-concept, the prototype consisted of 10 microphone units in contact with the skin placed around the wrist along with an inertial measurement unit (IMU). The gesture recognition performance was evaluated through the identification of 13 gestures used in daily life. The optimal area for acoustic sensor placement at the wrist was examined using the minimum redundancy and maximum relevance feature selection algorithm. We recruited 10 subjects to perform over 10 trials for each set of hand gestures. The accuracy was 75% for a general model with the top 25 features selected, and the intra-subject average classification accuracy was over 80% with the same features using one microphone unit at the mid-anterior wrist and an IMU. These results indicate that acoustic signatures from the human wrist can aid IMU sensing for hand gesture recognition, and the selection of a few common features for all subjects could help with building a general model. The proposed multimodal framework helps address the single IMU sensing bottleneck for hand gestures during arm movement and/or locomotion.
... Wearable computing has gained an increasing amount of attention in the past years, as advances in mobile computing technology provide more possibilities to design smaller and more versatile gadgets. Liu et al. [13] place wearables into a larger context of on-body technologies, and categorise them to include clothes, accessories, and skin interfaces. Smart jewellery is a sub-section of wearable devices, fulfilling extra requirements such as being aesthetically pleasing. ...
In recent years, design and form factors of wearables have converged towards traditional jewellery, such as rings, necklaces and bracelets. Even though the aesthetics of smart jewellery have been gradually improved, many current commercial pieces are still mainly functionality and technology-driven. In this paper, we take steps to better understand the design and wearing aspects of smart jewellery. We investigate how jewellery wearers associate functionalities with body locations in a design exploration session with industrial design students using the terms "private" and "public" as keys. Results suggest that with privacy in mind, smart jewellery designs move towards the wearer's hands and fingers and selected data sources originating from the wearer's body were preferred, while designs for "public" information presentation tended to be moved to higher locations on the body, i.e. head, neck and chest, and to be fed from external data sources.
... We based this on a review of appropriate body locations based on literature in on-body and on-skin input [13,26,28]. We also considered wearability factors literature in identifying suitable body placement of technology [8,17,31]. We also looked into anthropology literature on tattoo body art [23] to understand common body locations for placing tattoos. ...
Wearable devices have evolved towards intrinsic human augmentation, unlocking the human skin as an interface for seamless interaction. However, the non-traditional form factor of these on-skin interfaces, as well as the gestural interactions performed on them may raise concerns for public wear. These perceptions will influence whether a new form of technology will eventually be accepted, or rejected by society. Therefore, it is essential for researchers to consider the societal implications of device design. In this paper, we investigate the third person perceptions of a user's interactions with an on-skin touch sensor. Specifically, we examine social perceptions towards the placement of the on-skin interface in different body locations, as well as gestural interactions performed on the device. The study was conducted in the United States and Taiwan to examine cross-cultural attitudes towards device usage. The results of this structured examination offer insight into the design of on-skin interfaces for public use.
... Others have studied the selection of on-body location for wearables [93]. Some study wearables in the context of skin interfaces and Cosmetic Computing [18,50,51,54]. Researchers have also evaluated on-body location for gestural interaction with devices. ...
Wearables are integrated into many aspects of our lives, yet, we still need further guidance to develop devices that truly enhance in-person interactions, rather than detract from them by taking people's attention away from the moment and one another. The value of this paper is twofold: first, we present an annotated portfolio of 'social wearables', namely technology designs worn on the body that augment co-located interaction. The design work described can serve as inspiration for others. Then we propose a design framework for social wearables grounded in prior work, as well as our own design research, that can help designers to ideate by raising valuable questions to begin their inquiry with and use to evaluate their designs. We illustrate the evaluative value of this framework through two social wearable designs, each tested in the appropriate social setting.
... Kalantari [41] asserted that "some of the influential factors in the adoption of wearable devices such as privacy issues and aesthetics are more subjective than others and hence arouse arguments that need to be addressed." Earlier studies have established that the devices are defined by their wearability principles; the devices can be of various forms and factors and can be applied in several domains ranging from entertainment to medical and critical safety systems [54,63]. Since wearables are counted as fashnology, which represents consumer perceptions of wearable technologies as a combination of "fashion" and "technology" [76], their characteristics such as wearability and aesthetics (design) will play a large role in the intention to use. ...
Prior research on wearable devices has focused heavily on the consumer market. This study makes a unique empirical contribution to wearables research by extending the knowledge on factors that contribute to the adoption of quantified self-tracking wearable devices in an organizational environment. A wearable acceptance model (WAM) and factors that can influence the individual's decision to adopt quantified self-tracking wearable devices and self-monitoring practices were tested with an online survey of 129 university employees (faculty, administration) and students. Partial least squares path modeling was applied in an analysis to test nine hypotheses to validate the WAM. The factors in the individual context i.e. attitude plays a significant mediating role between the intention to use and the other influential factors of technology, implementation and risk context. The factors of the fashnology (wearability, aesthetic/design), individual (attitude) and risk context (privacy concern) tend to have strong and direct effects on the intention to use the devices, whereas factors of risk context (privacy concern) and technology context (performance expectancy) have a moderate influence on the intention to use through attitude. Organizational facilitating conditions have a significant negative influence on the intention to use. Surprisingly, effort expectancy does not have any effect on attitude.
... Their durability are still the main challenges that Wearables face. 2,3 Wearables and energy technologies give a new dimension to self-sufficient devices. The aim of developing wearable designs that intertwine textiles, photovoltaics and energy storage to generate harvest energy is a leitmotiv to address voices to climate change and global warming. ...
... Wearable computing is emerging as consumer products with different form factors. According to the framework by Liu et al. [8], wearable technologies can be categorized into clothing and accessory type form factors. While earlier research on wearables has focused much on the enabling technologies, the technology maturization is now allowing more opportunities for exploring the design and aesthetics of the concepts. ...
In this paper, we present a design and prototype of a smart handbag, which detects the presence of the user's keys in the bag and shows it with an ambient display, consisting of LEDs embedded to the design. The handbag prototype is an example of a smart accessory, which has been designed for both aesthetics and usefulness. The handbag was evaluated in an in-the-wild user study, where five participants used it for a period of one day each. The salient findings from the user study emphasize the perceived usefulness of the concept, successful adaptation of the prototype in everyday life, and aesthetic design. The sensing mechanics and implementation need careful design to achieve a reliable detection accuracy. In addition, the in-the-wild study provoked concerns related to the potential mismatch between the user's personal style or outfit and the handbag's appearance.
... The area of wearable computing is expanding in all categories, ranging from accessories and clothing to skin interfaces [9]. New technologies such as flexible displays and electronic textiles provide new opportunities for designing wearable computing. ...
We present the design and prototype of the Idle Stripes shirt, which is an aesthetic, clothing-integrated display, reflecting the wearer's physical activity in an ambient manner. The design is targeted to be smart business-wear for an office worker, which creates awareness of immobility periods during typical sitting-intensive office work. Long periods of such sitting are known to be health risks. The Idle Stripes shirt promotes healthy working, encouraging the wearer to break up their office desk work with walking breaks. The design prototype is constructed of a fabric with integrated optical fibers, which are illuminated based on the sitting time detected by an app running on the wearer's mobile phone.
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, and remote healthcare have increased the demand for sustainable and high-performance wearable sensors. Triboelectric devices are gaining traction due to their self-powered operation capability and potential as wearable energy harvesters. Skin-interfaced triboelectric sensors (SITSs) can detect various mechanical signals and monitor physiological signals in real-time. Biopolymer-based SITSs are ideal for skin-interfaced applications since they are biocompatible and biodegradable. This review focuses on the recent advancements of SITS made from biocompatible polymer materials, such as plant-based, animal-based, and synthetic polymers, and highlights their potential for various applications, including human–machine interface (HMI) and physiological sensing. In addition, the fundamentals, challenges, and prospects of SITS based on biocompatible polymers are discussed.
Applying customized epidermal electronics closely onto the human skin offers the potential for biometric sensing and unique, always-available on-skin interactions. However, iterating designs of an on-skin interface from schematics to physical circuit wiring can be time-consuming, even with tiny modifications; it is also challenging to preserve skin wearability after repeated alteration. We present SkinLink, a reconfigurable on-skin fabrication approach that allows users to intuitively explore and experiment with the circuitry adjustment on the body. We demonstrate SkinLink with a customized on-skin prototyping toolkit comprising tiny distributed circuit modules and a variety of streamlined trace modules that adapt to diverse body surfaces. To evaluate SkinLink's performance, we conducted a 14-participant usability study to compare and contrast the workflows with a benchmark on-skin construction toolkit. Four case studies targeting a film makeup artist, two beauty makeup artists, and a wearable computing designer further demonstrate different application scenarios and usages.
Resumo: Este artigo apresenta o desenvolvimento de um sistema de controle de apoio a tomada de decisão baseado em um colete sensorizado com tecnologia embarcada e vestível destinado a ser aplicado como um assistente pessoal na realização de tarefas complexas em situações de risco. Os eventos paralelos não associadas diretamente a ação principal e que podem prejudicar o sucesso da missão devem ser deixadas a cargo do sistema de controle e apoio a decisão. O protótipo do colete com tecnologia vestível é um dispositivo composto por um sistema de controle autônomo, com recurso de lógica nebulosa operado com múltiplos sensores aliados a um sistema de comunicação remota, transmissão de dados e gerenciamento de energia. Esse dispositivo deve ser capaz de fornecer ao usuário informações básicas como mudanças atmosféricas, presença de gases tóxicos, orientação via bússola, orientação de inclinação, temperatura e oxigenação corporal, batimento cardíaco e localização. Dada a quantidade e simultaneidade de informações captadas no ambiente em tarefas de curta ou de longa duração pode ocorrer em um ambiente hostil, o que traz a necessidade do uso racional dos recursos energéticos. A transmissão de dados remoto baseado em tecnologias de comunicação via rádio de longo alcance e de baixo consumo energético que contribui para a robustez do sistema. O protótipo em desenvolvimento dispõe de recursos de armazenamento de dados, estilo "caixa preta", com a gravação das últimas informações captadas do ambiente. O dispositivo proposto, dada a sua natureza complexa, deverá ter um plano sistematizado de testes baseado em técnicas de Engenharia de Sistemas & Requisitos com a finalidade de permitir seguir no levantamento rígido do nível de maturidade tecnológica alcançada no desenvolvimento. Neste artigo será apresentado o domínio do problema e o domínio da solução para sistemas embarcados, âmbito de uma proposta de sistema eletrônico e de controle, ambos integrados via uma programação baseada em lógica nebulosa residente em microcontroladores de uso geral (na configuração mestre e escravo) inseridas em um colete. Palavras-chave: Sensores, Apoio à Decisão, Lógica Nebulosa, Tecnologia Vestível, Sistemas Embarcados. 1. INTRODUÇÃO Segundo os dados divulgados pela Organização Internacional do Trabalho relativos aos acidentes profissionais, mostram que o Brasil possui um dos maiores índices de acidentes fatais por atividades operacionais, apenas em 2021 houveram ~570 mil acidentes com ~2.500 óbitos refletindo um aumento de ~30% referente ao ano de 2020 (OIT, 2022; MFB, 2018). Acidentes quase sempre estão associados a grandes danos emocionais com prejuízos sociais e um alto custo econômico para toda a sociedade. Equipamentos de proteção são essenciais para minimizar os riscos e ajudar a preservar a saúde e a integridade das pessoas. O desenvolvimento de equipamentos que possam ajudar e auxiliar profissionais na atuação em área de risco operacional, devem ser sempre uma atividade incentivada pela engenharia e pelas pesquisas científicas. Os dispositivos de proteção utilizados em ambientes operacionais, sejam coletivos ou individuais, tem como finalidade auxiliar os usuários a se protegerem em atividades operacionais no ambiente de risco quando na execução de atividades de campo, em ambiente operacional civil ou militar (RIBEIRO e WILTGEN, 2021A; RIBEIRO e WILTGEN, 2022). O propósito deste desenvolvimento científico é a obtenção de um protótipo físico real de um dispositivo vestível capaz de ser amplamente testado em ambiente controlado e em ambiente operacional relevante e ser capaz de ajudar na decisão do operador. Este dispositivo vestível vem sendo construído em um colete com tecnologia eletrônica embarcada, destinado a auxiliar atividades operacionais em ambientes de risco e tem como objetivo monitorar certas variáveis ambientais inerentes as situações críticas, interpretá-las e posteriormente comunicar-se com usuário sobre as informações relevantes detectadas e analisadas para auxiliar na tomada de decisão referente a atividade operacional em execução.
Resumo:
Atividades operacionais em campo ou ambientes de risco tornam a execução e a coordenação das ações bastante complexas. A fim de auxiliar as atividades em situações extremas foi proposto e desenvolvido o protótipo do colete sensorizado com tecnologia embarcada e vestível que permite ao usuário manter sua atenção na atividade principal, deixando a cargo de um assistente eletrônico vestível monitorar as variáveis importantes do ambiente em tempo real, interpretando e disponibilizando estas informações ao usuário, durante toda a operação. De tal forma que se houver perigo iminente o usuário possa ser alertado. O protótipo do colete sensorizado é um dispositivo vestível composto por um sistema de controle autônomo, com recurso de lógica nebulosa (LN) operado em um microcontrolador com múltiplos sensores, aliado a um sistema de comunicação remota, transmissão e gerenciamento de energia destinados a aplicações em ambiente civil ou militar. Quando em operação o colete captura dados de mudanças no ambiente ou no usuário de forma que estas informações são disponibilizadas para o mesmo e/ou para uma base operacional. O dispositivo deve ser capaz de simular um tipo de assistente pessoal artificial embarcado na forma de tecnologia vestível o dispositivo deve ser interpretado como uma máquina vestível, permitindo elevada capacidade de interação entre o equipamento e o usuário. No decorrer deste artigo tem-se a abordagem do controlador nebuloso embarcado com destaque a integração de dispositivos eletrônicos para o uso profissional em campo.
ABSTRAC:
Operational activities in field or risk areas make execution and
coordination of very complex actions. In order to assist activities in
extreme situations were proposed and developed sensor set with
embedded and wearable technology that allows user to keep their attention on
main, leaving a wearable electronic assistant charging activity as
important environment variables in real time, interpreting and making available
this information to user during the entire operation. In such a way that if there is
User danger can be alert. Sensory vest control is a
wearable device composed of an autonomous control system, with
fuzzy logic (FL) operates a microcontroller with multiple sensors, allied to
a remote communication, transmission and power management system
Applications in civil or military environment. When in operation vest
capturing data from changes in the environment or user so that these
information is made available for the same and/or an operational basis. O
device must be able to simulate a type of embedded artificial personal assistant
in form of wearable technology. The device must be interpreted as a machine
wearable, ability to interact between equipment and user.
In course of this paper, there is the approach of the embedded fuzzy controller with
highlight integration of electronic devices for professional field use.
Soft electronic skin (soft-e-skin) capable of sensing touch and pressure similar to human skin is essential in many applications, including robotics, healthcare, and augmented reality. However, most of the research effort on soft-e-skin was confined to the lab-scale demonstration. Several hurdles remain challenging, such as highly complex and expensive fabrication processes, instability in long-term use, and difficulty producing large areas and mass production. Here, we present a robust 3D printable large-area electronic skin made of a soft and resilient polymer capable of detecting touch and load, and bending with extreme sensitivity (up to 150 kPa-1) to touch and load, 750 times higher than earlier work. The soft-e-skin shows excellent long-term stability and consistent performance up to almost a year. In addition, we describe a fabrication process capable of producing large areas and in large numbers, yet is cost-effective. The soft-e-skin consists of a uniquely designed optical waveguide and a layer of a soft membrane with an array of soft structures which work as passive sensing nodes. The use of a soft structure gives the liberty of stretching to the soft-e-skin without considering the disjoints among the sensing nodes. We have shown the functioning of the soft-e-skin under various conditions.
Wearables have become a natural element of human life, determining our way of perceiving, understanding and experiencing the world. Enriched with elements of artificial intelligence, they will change our habits and draw us into the digital dimension of the world - a space of uninterrupted interaction between people and technology. As a result, there are still new ideas for the effective use of AI wearables in the consumer space. The main aim of the article is to examine the determinants behind the acceptance of the AI wearables, with particular emphasis on the strength and nature of the relationship between the consumer and technology. The UTAUT2 model is used for this purpose. The article is a continuation of the previous reflections and analyses in this area; at the same time it constitutes an initial stage of research on the issues related to the adoption of AI wearables.
The paper addresses the challenge of balancing the tension between a problem solving attitude in the design of assistive devices, with an ethical, aesthetic and cultural approach to design for people living with a temporary or permanent impairment. The topic is developed presenting two design cases. The first case is a suite of smart jewels tailored to the needs of people with hearing impairment (Marti & Recupero, 2019), (Quietude, 2019). The jewels sense environmental sounds (e.g. the doorbell, an alarm, someone calling, a car horn) and notify them to the wearer through different modalities (light patterns, vibrations, shape changes). An App completes the system allowing the deaf person to record personal meaningful sounds and set preferences for their notification. The second case is an orthodontic facemask for children designed as a 3D printed super-hero mask made of biocompatible materials (Marti et al., in press), (SuperPowerMe, 2019). It is associated to a game where a superhero avatar wearing a similar facemask gains power by progressing in an adventure. The design cases represent examples of permanent and temporary impairment that share fundamental features of the user experience: the stigma associated to hearing aids and orthodontic facemasks alters self-image and self-esteem of people affecting all aspects of life. The cases show that design can promote a cultural shift by transforming assistive wearables into beautiful, playful, gender-appropriate accessories.
Wearable technology adalah teknologi yang dikenakan oleh penggunanya dan dilengkapi dengan sensor untuk menangkap data sehingga dapat diolah dan disajikan menjadi infomasi yang bermanfaat bagi penggunanya. Kajian tentang adopsi masyarakat terhadap wearable device ini perlu dilakukan untuk menyusun strategi dalam mempercepat adoption rate di masyarakat. Adopsi pada inovasi dan teknologi ini dikaji dengan Technology Acceptance Model (Davis 1986) dan Innovation Diffusion Theory (Rogers 1983). Bagaimana variabel compatibilty, visibility, image, result demonstrability, dan voluntariness, serta variabel perceived ease of use dan perceived usefulness, terhadap variabel adoption intention perlu dikaji lebih dalam. Kuesioner disebar pada 218 responden dan dianalisis menggunakan structural equation model (SEM). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa compatibility memiliki peran dominan terhadap perceived usefulness, diikuti result demonstrability, visibility, image dan voluntariness. Variabel perceived ease of use tidak memiliki pengaruh terhadap perceived usefulness, namun berpengaruh langsung terhadap niat seseorang untuk menggunakan wearable technology. Gender tidak memoderasi pengaruh variabel perceived ease of use dan perceived usefulness terhadap niat seseorang untuk mengadopsi wearable technology. Pengembang dan peritel produk wearable technology dapat mengetahui bahwa motivasi seseorang dalam mengadopsi teknologi tersebut dipengaruhi secara langsung oleh faktor perceived ease of use dan perceived usefulness, serta secara tidak langsung oleh faktor compatibility, result demonstrability, visibility, image, dan voluntariness.
In this paper, we explore the possibilities of wearable technology in supporting couples in long-distance relationships (LDRs) to achieve better insights on how wearables could be designed to fit the real needs of this user group. We approach the topic with a hands-on design workshop, where twelve participants living in an LDR created concepts and low-fidelity physical prototypes of wearables, and presented the video-recorded concepts to their remote partners to get their feedback. We thoroughly documented and analysed the workshop, and, based on the findings, we propose design considerations for designing wearable communication devices to support LDRs, including supporting secret communication modes, effortless awareness, and asynchronous lifestyle of the couples. It is also important that technology, particularly wearables, is designed so that it can be seamlessly integrated as part of everyday life and fits to different contexts.
What if lighting were not fixed to our architecture but becomes part of our body? Light would be only where it is needed. Buildings would light up brightly when busy, and dim down when people leave. Lighting would become more energy efficient, more personal, and colorful, tailored to individual needs. What applications beyond illumination would be possible in such a scenario? Halo is a wearable lighting device that aims to investigate this question. More specifically Halo explores the potential of body-centered lighting technology to alter appearance and create a personal space for its wearer. A ring of colored LEDs frames the wearer's face, putting her into the light she desires. Borrowing from both theatrical and photographic lighting design, Halo has several different lighting compositions that make the wearer appear happy, sad, energetic, mysterious, etc. Using a smart phone application, the wearer can switch between these modes. She can also let the application adjust automatically depending on her activities. Halo is an experimental technology that combines function and fashion---a platform to probe the future of wearable lighting.
Nature has engineered its own actuators, as well as the efficient material composition, geometry and structure to utilize its actuators and achieve functional transformation. Based on the natural phenomenon of cells' hygromorphic transformation, we introduce the living Bacillus Subtilis natto cell as a humidity sensitive nanoactuator. In this paper, we unfold the process of exploring and comparing cell types that are proper for HCI use, the development of the composite biofilm, the development of the responsive structures, the control setup for actuating biofilms, and a simulation and fabrication platform. Finally, we provide a variety of application designs, with and without computer control to demonstrate the potential of our bio actuators. Through this paper, we intend to enable the use of natto cells and our platform technologies for HCI researchers, designers and bio-hackers. More generally, we try to encourage the research and use of biological responsive materials and interdisciplinary research in HCI.
Printing sensors and electronics over flexible substrates are an area of significant interest due to low-cost fabrication and possibility of obtaining multifunctional electronics over large areas. Over the years, a number of printing technologies have been developed to pattern a wide range of electronic materials on diverse substrates. As further expansion of printed technologies is expected in future for sensors and electronics, it is opportune to review the common features, the complementarities, and the challenges associated with various printing technologies. This paper presents a comprehensive review of various printing technologies, commonly used substrates and electronic materials. Various solution/dry printing and contact/noncontact printing technologies have been assessed on the basis of technological, materials, and process-related developments in the field. Critical challenges in various printing techniques and potential research directions have been highlighted. Possibilities of merging various printing methodologies have been explored to extend the lab developed standalone systems to high-speed roll-to-roll production lines for system level integration.
Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for review ing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and review ing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimat e or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highw ay, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302, and to the Office of Management and Budget, Paperw ork Reduction Project (0704-0188), Washington, DC 20503. This study assessed the human factors issues associated with wearing a Vital Sign Detection System (VSDS), a body worn physiological monitoring system. Experienced combat Soldiers (n = 27) participated in a combat training exercise of ~ 120 hr while wearing the VSDS. They were then given a questionnaire to assess comfort, physical impact on the body, and acceptability of the VSDS as well as questions on fit, impact on performance, and durability of the VSDS. Comfort was impacted the most by the VSDS when in the prone position, possibly affecting sleep, and prone position rifle shooting. Skin irritation or discomfort was reported in 85% of respondents. Sixty-two percent thought the VSDS was not acceptable to wear for > 8 hr. Yet, at the same time, 92% of Soldiers approved of the concept for health monitoring, and 89% said they would wear the VSDS as is if it could help save their life. The VSDS needs to be modified to be more comfortable before it can be fielded for medical monitoring of Soldiers in the field.
We present Plex, a finger-worn textile sensor for eyes-free mobile interaction during daily activities. Although existing products like a data glove possess multiple sensing capabilities, they are not designed for
environments where body and finger motion are dynamic. Usually an interaction with fingers couples bending and pressing. In Plex, we separate bending and pressing by placing each sensing element in discrete faces of a finger. Our proposed simple and low-cost fabrication process using conductive elastomers and threads transforms an elastic fabric into a finger-worn interaction tool. Plex preserves an inter-finger natural tactile feedback and proprioception. We also explore the interaction design and implement applications allowing users to interact with existing mobile and wearable devices using Plex.
Wearable technology, specifically e-textiles, offers the potential for interacting with electronic devices in a whole new manner. However, some may find the operation of a system that employs non-traditional on-body interactions uncomfortable to perform in a public setting, impacting how readily a new form of mobile technology may be received. Thus, it is important for interaction designers to take into consideration the implications of on-body gesture interactions when designing wearable interfaces. In this study, we explore the third-party perceptions of a user's interactions with a wearable e-textile interface. This two-prong evaluation examines the societal perceptions of a user interacting with the textile interface at different on-body locations, as well as the observer's attitudes toward on-body controller placement. We performed the study in the United States and South Korea to gain cultural insights into the perceptions of on-body technology usage.
Mobile and wearable devices became pervasive in daily life. The dominant input techniques for mobile and wearable technology are touch and speech. Both approaches are not appropriate in all settings. Therefore, we propose a novel interface that is controlled through the tongue. It is based on an array of textile pressure sensors attached to the user's cheek. It can be easily integrated into helmets or face masks in a non-invasive way. In an initial study, we investigate gestures for tongue-based interface. Six participants repeatedly performed five simple tongue gestures. We show that gestures can be recognized with 98% accuracy. Based on feedback from participants, we discuss potential use cases and provide an outlook on further improvement of the system.
This work presents a novel and always-available nail mounted display known as NailDisplay. The proposed display augments the use of a finger by allowing for always-available visual feedback owing to its fast accessibility and binding user controls with the display, i.e. what you control is what you see (through the display). Potential benefits of NailDisplay are demonstrated in three applications: from displaying to combining it with user controls. In the first application, NailDisplay can reveal what is occluded under a finger touch, making it a solution to operate small UI elements. In the second application, NailDisplay is complementary to an imaginary interface, helping users to learn an imaginary interface (e.g., on the users' arms) and allowing them to reassure the interface when their memory of it becomes unclear. In the third application, NailDisplay is integrated with rich finger interactions, such as swiping in the air. We also report users' feedbacks gathered from an explorative user study.
Since the 1990's, mobile computing has transformed its penetration from niche markets and early prototypes to ubiquity. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) evolved from GRiD's PalmPad and Apple's Newton in 1993 to the Palm, Handspring, and Microsoft-based models that support the multi-billion dollar industry today. While BellSouth/IBM's Simon may have been the only mobile phone to offer e-mail connectivity in 1994, almost every modern mobile phone provides data services today. Portable digital music players have replaced cassette and CD-based systems, and these "MP3 players" are evolving into portable repositories for music videos, movies, photos, and personal information such as e-mail. Laptops, which were massive and inconvenient briefcase devices in the late 1980's, now outsell desktops. Yet all these devices still have a common, difficult problem to overcome: power. This chapter will review trends in mobile computing over the past decade and describe how batteries affect design tradeoffs for mobile device manufacturers. This analysis leads to an interesting question: is there an alternative to batteries? Although the answer has many components that range from power management through energy storage [142], the bulk of this chapter will overview the history and state-of-the-art in harvesting power from the user to support body-worn mobile electronics.
Multifunctional capability, flexible design, rugged lightweight construction and self-powered operation are desired attributes for electronics that directly interface with the human body or with advanced robotic systems. For these applications, piezoelectric materials, in forms that offer the ability to bend and stretch, are attractive for pressure/force sensors and mechanical energy harvesters. Here, we introduce a large area, flexible piezoelectric material that consists of sheets of electrospun fibres of the polymer poly[(vinylidenefluoride-co-trifluoroethylene]. The flow and mechanical conditions associated with the spinning process yield free-standing, three-dimensional architectures of aligned arrangements of such fibres, in which the polymer chains adopt strongly preferential orientations. The resulting material offers exceptional piezoelectric characteristics, to enable ultra-high sensitivity for measuring pressure, even at exceptionally small values (0.1 Pa). Quantitative analysis provides detailed insights into the pressure sensing mechanisms, and establishes engineering design rules. Potential applications range from self-powered micro-mechanical elements, to self-balancing robots and sensitive impact detectors.
A hyperelastic, thin, transparent pressure sensitive keypad is fabricated by embedding a silicone rubber film with conductive liquid-filled microchannels. Applying pressure to the surface of the elastomer deforms the cross-section of underlying microchannels and changes the electrical resistance across the affected channels. Perpendicular conductive channels form a quasi-planar network within an elastomeric matrix that registers the location, intensity and duration of applied pressure. Pressing channel intersections of the keypad triggers one of twelve keys, allowing the user to write any combination of alphabetic letters. A 5% change in channel output voltage must be achieved to trigger a key. It is found that approximately 100 kPa of pressure is necessary to produce a 5% change in voltage across a conductive microchannel that is 20 microns in height and 200 microns in width. Sensitivity of the keypad is tunable via channel geometry and choice of elastomeric material.
With the development of new technologies, new dynamic epithelial artifacts (new tattoos) are designed, enabling new types of situated and embodied multimodal communication. New tattoos (NTs) turn the skin into a source of dynamic and reversible inscription, possibly responsive to fine-grained organic variations, and dependent on oriented local perturbation. As new aesthetic-cognitive artifacts, NTs alter the operational and semiotic dimension of the skin, transforming it into a new frame of interactive interface. This paper aims at introducing some epithelial prostheses based on new biocompatible materials and technologies.
In terms of mounting a computer on the body, the computer's weight, size, shape, placement and method of attachment can elicit a number of effects. Inappropriate design may mean that the wearer is unable to perform specific tasks or achieve goals. Excessive stress on the body may result in perceptions of discomfort, which may in turn affect task performance, but ultimately raises issues of health and safety. This paper proposes a methodology for assessing the affects of wearing a computer in terms of physiological energy expenditure, the biomechanical effects due to changes in movement patterns, posture and perceptions of localised pain and discomfort due to musculoskeletal loading, and perceptions of well- being through comfort assessment. From ratings of these effects the paper proposes 5 levels to determine the wearability of a computer.
We describe a prototype system that combines the overlaid 3D graphics of augmented reality with the untethered freedom of mobile computing. The goal is to explore how these two technologies might together make possible wearable computer systems that can support users in their everyday interactions with the world. We introduce an application that presents information about our university's campus, using a head-tracked, see-through, head-worn, 3D display, and an untracked, opaque, hand-held, 2D display with stylus and trackpad. We provide an illustrated explanation of how our prototype is used, and describe our rationale behind designing its software infrastructure and selecting the hardware on which it runs.
Wearable computing moves computation from the desktop to the user. We are forming a community of networked wearable computer users to explore, over a long period, the augmented realities that these systems can provide. By adapting its behavior to the user's changing environment, a body-worn computer can assist the user more intelligently, consistently, and continuously than a desktop system. A text-based augmented reality, the Remembrance Agent, is presented to illustrate this approach. Video cameras are used both to warp the visual input (mediated reality) and to sense the user's world for graphical overlay. With a camera, the computer tracks the user's nger, which acts as the system's mouse; performs face recognition; and detects passive objects to overlay 2.5D and D graphics onto the real world. Additional apparatus such as audio systems, infrared beacons for sensing location, and biosensors for learning about the wearer's aect are described. Using the input from these interface devices and sensors, a long term goal of this project is to model the user's actions, anticipate his or her needs, and perform a seemless interaction between the virtual and physical environments.
We report classes of electronic systems that achieve thicknesses, effective elastic moduli, bending stiffnesses, and areal
mass densities matched to the epidermis. Unlike traditional wafer-based technologies, laminating such devices onto the skin
leads to conformal contact and adequate adhesion based on van der Waals interactions alone, in a manner that is mechanically
invisible to the user. We describe systems incorporating electrophysiological, temperature, and strain sensors, as well as
transistors, light-emitting diodes, photodetectors, radio frequency inductors, capacitors, oscillators, and rectifying diodes.
Solar cells and wireless coils provide options for power supply. We used this type of technology to measure electrical activity
produced by the heart, brain, and skeletal muscles and show that the resulting data contain sufficient information for an
unusual type of computer game controller.
Smart fabrics and interactive textiles (SFIT) are fibrous structures that are capable of sensing, actuating, generating/storing power and/or communicating. Research and development towards wearable textile-based personal systems allowing e.g. health monitoring, protection & safety, and healthy lifestyle gained strong interest during the last 10 years. Under the Information and Communication Programme of the European Commission, a cluster of R&D projects dealing with smart fabrics and interactive textile wearable systems regroup activities along two different and complementary approaches i.e. 'application pull' and 'technology push'. This includes projects aiming at personal health management through integration, validation, and use of smart clothing and other networked mobile devices as well as projects targeting the full integration of sensors/actuators, energy sources, processing and communication within the clothes to enable personal applications such as protection/safety, emergency and healthcare. The integration part of the technologies into a real SFIT product is at present stage on the threshold of prototyping and testing. Several issues, technical as well user-centred, societal and business, remain to be solved. The paper presents on going major R&D activities, identifies gaps and discuss key challenges for the future.
In this paper we introduce two input devices for wearable computers, called GestureWrist and GesturePad. Both devices allow users to interact with wearable or nearby computers by using gesture-based commands. Both are designed to be as unobtrusive as possible, so they can be used under various social contexts. The first device, called GestureWrist, is a wristband-type input device that recognizes hand gestures and forearm movements. Unlike DataGloves or other hand gesture-input devices, all sensing elements are embedded in a normal wristband. The second device, called GesturePad, is a sensing module that can be attached on the inside of clothes, and users can interact with this module from the outside. It transforms conventional clothes into an interactive device without changing their appearance
The paper discusses the energy storage requirements of wearable computer technology and identifies research topics for novel battery technologies. Three categories of devices with basically different battery requirements were defined. They comprise the wearable computer main unit, small devices which are distributed around the human body and active tags which enable situated and ubiquitous computing. There is a demand for small, high energy density rechargeable batteries which enable a flexible design and for very low cost thin primary batteries for smart label active lags. Prototypes of 120 μm thick AgO-Zn batteries have been fabricated by a screen printing process. They can be directly integrated into plastic cards, smart labels and hybrid circuits
Digital Technology is constantly improving as information becomes wireless. These advances demand more wearable and mobile form factors for products that access information. A product that is wearable should have wearability. This paper explores the concept of dynamic wearability, through design research. Wearability is defined as the interaction between the human body and the wearable object. Dynamic wearability extends that definition to include the human body in motion. Our research has been to locate, understand, and define the spaces on the human body where solid and flexible forms can rest-without interfering with fluid human movement. The result is a set of design guidelines embodied in a set of wearable forms. These wearable forms describe the three dimensional spaces on the body best suited for comfortable and unobtrusive wearability by design.
What if lighting were not fixed to our architecture but becomes part of our body? Light would be only where it is needed. Buildings would light up brightly when busy, and dim down when people leave. Lighting would become more energy efficient, more personal, and colorful, tailored to individual needs. What applications beyond illumination would be possible in such a scenario? Halo is a wearable lighting device that aims to investigate this question. More specifically Halo explores the potential of body-centered lighting technology to alter appearance and create a personal space for its wearer. A ring of colored LEDs frames the wearer's face, putting her into the light she desires. Borrowing from both theatrical and photographic lighting design, Halo has several different lighting compositions that make the wearer appear happy, sad, energetic, mysterious, etc. Using a smart phone application, the wearer can switch between these modes. She can also let the application adjust automatically depending on her activities. Halo is an experimental technology that combines function and fashion---a platform to probe the future of wearable lighting.
" We present Tomo, a wearable, low-cost system using Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) to recover the interior impedance geometry of a user's arm. This is achieved by measuring the cross-sectional impedances between all pairs of eight electrodes resting on a user's skin. Our approach is sufficiently compact and low-powered that we integrated the technology into a prototype wrist- and armband, which can monitor and classify gestures in real-time. We conducted a user study that evaluated two gesture sets, one focused on gross hand gestures and another using thumb-to-finger pinches. Our wrist location achieved 97% and 87% accuracies on these gesture sets respectively, while our arm location achieved 93% and 81%. We ultimately envision this technique being integrated into future smartwatches, allowing hand gestures and direct touch manipulation to work synergistically to support interactive tasks on small screens.
We present NailO, a nail-mounted gestural input surface. Using capacitive sensing on printed electrodes, the interface can distinguish on-nail finger swipe gestures with high accuracy (>92%). NailO works in real-time: we miniaturized the system to fit on the fingernail, while wirelessly transmitting the sensor data to a mobile phone or PC. NailO allows one-handed and always-available input, while being unobtrusive and discrete. Inspired by commercial nail stickers, the device blends into the user's body, is customizable, fashionable and even removable. We show example applications of using the device as a remote controller when hands are busy and using the system to increase the input space of mobile phones.
Our aim with Beauty Technology is to transform our body in an interactive platform by hiding technology into beauty products for creating muscle based interfaces that don’t give the wearer a cyborg look. FX e-makeup is a Beauty Technology prototype that applies FX makeup materials embedded with electronics for sensing the face’s muscles. This work presents Winkymote and Kinisi as proof of concept of the FX e-makeup.
The integration of electronics into textiles and clothing has opened up an array of functions beyond those of conventional textiles. These novel materials are beginning to find applications in commercial products, in fields such as communication, healthcare, protection and wearable technology. Electronic Textiles: Smart Fabrics and Wearable Technology opens with an initiation to the area from the editor, Tilak Dias. Part One introduces conductive fibres, carbon nano-tubes and polymer yarns. Part Two discusses techniques for integrating textiles and electronics, including the design of textile-based sensors and actuators, and energy harvesting methods. Finally, Part Three covers a range of electronic textile applications, from wearable electronics to technical textiles featuring expert chapters on embroidered antennas for communication systems and wearable sensors for athletes. • Comprehensive overview of conductive fibres, yarns and fabrics for electronic textiles • Expert analysis of textile-based sensors design, integration of micro-electronics with yarns and photovoltaic energy harvesting for intelligent textiles • Detailed coverage of applications in electronic textiles, including werable sensors for athletes, embroidered antennas for communication and electronic textiles for military personnel.
Beauty Technology is a wearable computing paradigm that uses the body's surface as an interactive platform by integrating technology into beauty products applied directly to one's skin, fingernails and hair. Hairware is a Beauty Technology Prototype that connects chemically metalized hair extensions to a microcontroller turning it into an input device for triggering different objects. Hairware acts as a capacitive touch sensor that detects touch variations on hair and uses machine learning algorithms in order to recognize user's intention. Normally, while someone touches her own hair, unconsciously she is bringing comfort to herself and at the same time is emitting a non-verbal message decodable by an observer. However, when she replays that touch on Hairware, she is not just emitting a message to an observer, because touching her hair would trigger an object, creating in this way, a concealed interface to different devices. Therefore, Hairware brings the opportunity to make conscious use of an unconscious auto-contact behavior. We present Hairware's hardware and software implementation. Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. ACM.
Energy harvesting technology provides a promising choice to replace the batteries used in modern wearable devices. This paper describes new kind of piezoelectric energy harvesting devices aiming for high power output at low frequency with broad bandwidth. By accessing the performance of the device at different frequencies, we have demonstrated two energy harvesting devices with power output at 10 microwatts level. A complete energy harvesting system is also designed to adjust the output voltage for practical applications. Energy from human motion has been successfully harvested to power an LCD device and an LED lamp. Those demonstrations reveal potential applications of the energy harvester in other wearable devices.
We expose it, cover it, paint it, tattoo it, scar it, and pierce it. Our intimate connection with the world, skin protects us while advertising our health, our identity, and our individuality. This dazzling synthetic overview is a complete guidebook to the pliable covering that makes us who we are. Skin: A Natural History celebrates the evolution of three unique attributes of human skin: its naked sweatiness, its distinctive sepia rainbow of colors, and its remarkable range of decorations. Jablonski places the rich cultural canvas of skin within its broader biological context for the first time, and the result is a tremendously engaging look at us.
We propose iSkin, a novel class of skin-worn sensors for touch input on the body. iSkin is a very thin sensor overlay, made of biocompatible materials, and is flexible and stretchable. It can be produced in different shapes and sizes to suit various locations of the body such as the finger, forearm, or ear. Integrating capacitive and resistive touch sensing, the sensor is capable of detecting touch input with two levels of pressure, even when stretched by 30% or when bent with a radius of 0.5cm. Furthermore, iSkin supports single or multiple touch areas of custom shape and arrangement, as well as more complex widgets, such as sliders and click wheels. Recognizing the social importance of skin, we show visual design patterns to customize functional touch sensors and allow for a visually aesthetic appearance. Taken together, these contributions enable new types of on-body devices. This includes finger-worn devices, extensions to conventional wearable devices, and touch input stickers, all fostering direct, quick, and discreet input for mobile computing.
Wearable devices have high potentials for a wide range of applications for future electronics. One of the possible applications is human interactive devices for health monitoring system. In this study, we present high performance flexible and stretchable devices for artificial electronic skins and health monitoring system utilizing inorganic nanomaterial films patterned by printing methods as a proof of concepts. Inorganic-based flexible devices realize a low voltage operation <5 V compared to other flexible devices using organic materials. Mechanical flexibility and stretchability are experimentally characterized, and different types of applications are demonstrated. This inorganic-based printing method may lead the field in high performance flexible electronics and open new fields in human interactive wearable devices.
This article reviews recent advances and developments in the field of wearable sensors with emphasis on a subclass of these devices that are able to perform highly‐sensitive electrochemical analysis. Recent insights into novel fabrication methodologies and electrochemical techniques have resulted in the demonstration of chemical sensors able to augment conventional physical measurements (i.e. heart rate, EEG, ECG, etc.), thereby providing added dimensions of rich, analytical information to the wearer in a timely manner. Wearable electrochemical sensors have been integrated onto both textile materials and directly on the epidermis for various monitoring applications owing to their unique ability to process chemical analytes in a non‐invasive and non‐obtrusive fashion. In this manner, multi‐analyte detection can easily be performed, in real time, in order to ascertain the overall physiological health of the wearer or to identify potential offenders in their environment. Of profound importance is the development of an understanding of the impact of mechanical strain on textile‐ and epidermal (tattoo)‐based sensors and their failure mechanisms as well as the compatibility of the substrate employed in the fabrication process. We conclude this review with a retrospective outlook of the field and identify potential implications of this new sensing paradigm in the healthcare, fitness, security, and environmental monitoring domains. With continued innovation and detailed attention to core challenges, it is expected that wearable electrochemical sensors will play a pivotal role in the emergent body sensor networks arena.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore characteristics of human‐computer interaction when the human body and its movements become input for interaction and interface control in pervasive computing settings.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper quantifies the performance of human movement based on Fitt's Law and discusses some of the human factors and technical considerations that arise in trying to use human body movements as an input medium.
Findings
The paper finds that new interaction technologies utilising human movements may provide more flexible, naturalistic interfaces and support the ubiquitous or pervasive computing paradigm.
Practical implications
In pervasive computing environments the challenge is to create intuitive and user‐friendly interfaces. Application domains that may utilize human body movements as input are surveyed here and the paper addresses issues such as culture, privacy, security and ethics raised by movement of a user's body‐based interaction styles.
Originality/value
The paper describes the utilization of human body movements as input for interaction and interface control in pervasive computing settings.
Just blink and levitate objects, just move your fingernails and open the door. Chemically metalized eyelashes, RFID nails and conductive makeup are some examples of Beauty Technology products, an emergent field in Wearable Computers. Beauty Technology embedded electromagnetic devices into non-invasive beauty products that could be attached to the human body for interacting with different surfaces like water, clothes, the own wearer's body and other objects, just blinking or even without touching any of these surfaces.
Looking for wearables that are fashionable, smart and augment human interaction, we introduce the term Beauty Technology as an emergent field in Wearable Computing. It is an on-body computing approach that turns non-invasive, wireless and without power required electromagnetic devices into beauty products for interacting with different surfaces and devices. This paper describes the materials and the prototyping process used in the making of Beauty Tech Nails exemplifying its application in everyday beauty products.
As wearable technology assumes an increasingly important function in daily life, sensors and other electronic devices applied directly to the skin, in forms like artificial nails and makeup, might further revolutionize human experience.
We introduce a curvature sensor composed of a thin, transparent elastomer film (polydimethylsiloxane, PDMS) embedded with a microchannel of conductive liquid (eutectic Gallium Indium, eGaIn) and a sensing element. Bending the sensor exerts pressure on the embedded microchannel via the sensing element. Deformation of the cross-section of the microchannel leads to a change in electrical resistance. We demonstrate the functionality of the sensor through testing on a finger joint. The film is wrapped around a finger with the sensing element positioned on top of the knuckle. Finger bending both stretches the elastomer and exerts pressure on the sensing element, leading to an enhanced change in the electrical resistance. Because the sensor is soft (elastic modulus E ~ 1 MPa) and stretchable (>350%), it conforms to the host bending without interfering with the natural mechanics of motion. This sensor represents the first use of liquid-embedded elastomer electronics to monitor human or robotic motion.
Wearable Monitors
Advances in microelectronics have yielded high-quality devices that allow for intensive signal collection or transmission. S. Xu et al. (p. 70 ) show how to make a soft wearable system that is constructed like a stretchable circuit board, where the electronic components are bridged electrically by thin, meandering conducting traces that float in a highly visco-elastic polymer. A complete soft circuit capable of multisignal physiological sensing on skin was created, with potential for use in health monitoring or neonatal care.
Stretchable electronics provide a foundation for applications that exceed the scope of conventional wafer and circuit board technologies due to their unique capacity to integrate with soft materials and curvilinear surfaces. The range of possibilities is predicated on the development of device architectures that simultaneously offer advanced electronic function and compliant mechanics. Here we report that thin films of hard electronic materials patterned in deterministic fractal motifs and bonded to elastomers enable unusual mechanics with important implications in stretchable device design. In particular, we demonstrate the utility of Peano, Greek cross, Vicsek and other fractal constructs to yield space-filling structures of electronic materials, including monocrystalline silicon, for electrophysiological sensors, precision monitors and actuators, and radio frequency antennas. These devices support conformal mounting on the skin and have unique properties such as invisibility under magnetic resonance imaging. The results suggest that fractal-based layouts represent important strategies for hard-soft materials integration.
We describe the design, fabrication, and calibration of a highly compliant artificial skin sensor. The sensor consists of multilayered mircochannels in an elastomer matrix filled with a conductive liquid, capable of detecting multiaxis strains and contact pressure. A novel manufacturing method comprised of layered molding and casting processes is demonstrated to fabricate the multilayered soft sensor circuit. Silicone rubber layers with channel patterns, cast with 3-D printed molds, are bonded to create embedded microchannels, and a conductive liquid is injected into the microchannels. The channel dimensions are 200 (width) 300 (height). The size of the sensor is 25 mm 25 mm, and the thickness is approximately 3.5 mm. The prototype is tested with a materials tester and showed linearity in strain sensing and nonlinearity in pressure sensing. The sensor signal is repeatable in both cases. The characteristic modulus of the skin prototype is approximately 63 kPa. The sensor is functional up to strains of approximately 250%.
Smart textiles research represents a new model for generating creative and novel solutions for integrating electronics into unusual environments and will result in new discoveries that push the boundaries of science forward. A key driver for smart textiles research is the fact that both textile and electronics fabrication processes are capable of functionalizing large-area surfaces at very high speeds. In this article we review the history of smart textiles development, introducing the main trends and technological challenges faced in this field. Then, we identify key challenges that are the focus of ongoing research. We then proceed to discuss fundamentals of smart textiles: textile fabrication methods and textile interconnect lines, textile sensor, and output device components and integration of commercial components into textile architectures. Next we discuss representative smart textile systems and finally provide our outlook over the field and a prediction for the future.
This paper defines the concept of social weight as a design consideration and presents the e-SUIT, a social weight research platform incorporated covertly within a traditional business suit. The e-SUIT allows its user to strike a balance between a given technology''s derived benefit and its social consequence. As the e-SUIT is designed for research within a business context, it is built upon commercially available enterprise software. This work is a first step towards subjecting the empirical social interactive phenomena of wearable technology to quantitative design analysis. Proof of concept testing shows access to commercially available enterprise applications with a distinct, user selectable, strata of social weight.
Two Fabry-Perot interferometers based on chemical etching in multimode graded index fibers are fabricated and their response to temperature and strain are compared. Chemical etching is applied in the graded index fiber end creating an air cavity. The interferometric cavity is formed when the graded index fiber with the air concavity is spliced to a single-mode fiber. The intrinsic sensors present high sensitivity to strain and low sensitivity to temperature. For the 62.5 μm core fiber, sensitivities of 6.99 pm/με and, 0.95 pm/°C were obtained for strain and temperature, respectively. The sensor based in the 50 μm core fiber, on the other hand, presented sensitivities of 4.06 pm/με and -0.84 pm/°C for strain and temperature, respectively.
Wearability, or the relationship between a worn technology and the ability or desire of the user to wear it, is a key element in the successful design of wearable technologies. Wearability addresses the physical, cognitive, and emotional state of the user, and the impact of the wearable technology on the user's homeostasis in each area. This tutorial will provide the participant with an overview of the pertinent variables and design considerations for the design of truly wearable technologies. We will address factors related to anatomy, ergonomics, cognitive science, psychology, sociology, textile science, interface design, and apparel design.
In this note, we present SixthSense, a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. By using a tiny projector and a camera coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device, SixthSense sees what the user sees and visually augments surfaces, walls or physical objects the user is interacting with; turning them into just-in-time information interfaces. SixthSense attempts to free information from its confines by seamlessly integrating it with the physical world.