KNITTED CIRCUITS FOR VISUAL AND TACTILE INTERACTIVE EXPRESSIONS Anna Persson

140 Pages·2009·7.26 MB·English

THESIS FOR THE DEGREE OF LICENTIATE OF ENGINEERING
KNITTED CIRCUITS FOR VISUAL AND TACTILE
INTERACTIVE EXPRESSIONS
Anna Persson
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Chalmers University of Technology
SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden
Telephone + 46 (0)31 772 10 00
Göteborg, 2009
Knitted circuits for visual and tactile interactive expressions
Anna Persson
© Anna Persson, 2009
Technical report 61L
ISSN 1652-876X
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Chalmers University of Technology
SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden
Telephone: [phone]
The Swedish School of Textiles
University of Borås
SE-501 90 Borås, Sweden
Telephone: [phone]
Doctoral programme: Human-Technology-Design
Printed at Chalmers Reproservice, Göteborg 2009
Photographs on pages 36, 37, 40, by Lars Hallnäs
Other photographs by the authors and participants in the projects
ABSTRACT
As computational technology and new materials are entering the world
of textiles, our view on the textile material is challenged; the areas of tex-
tile design and interaction design start to merge. Designing interactive
textiles means communicating new expressional forms through textile
material. This thesis aim to contribute to the exploration of designing
interactive knitted textiles with focus on linking interactive properties,
especially visual and tactile, to different ways of expressing them. Design
examples and experiments presented are meant to show new possibilities
for designing textile material able to change structure, colour and tem-
perature in different ways in response to environmental stimuli. As a way
of presenting, and reflecting on, these interactive properties, a notion of
expression diagrams is introduced.
Keywords: smart textiles, interaction design, knitted circuits, visual and
tactile interactive properties, expression diagrams
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all I would like to thank my supervisor Lars Hallnäs for support,
and for generously sharing his time and thoughts during my studies.
Thanks also to my co-supervisor Folke Sandvik and Tommy Martinsson
in the knitting department at the Swedish School of Textiles, my co-super-
visor Staffan Björk and Peter Ljungstrand at Chalmers and Max Sjöholm
for proof reading. A warm thanks to friends and fellow PhD-students at
the Swedish School of Textiles, special thanks to Amy Bondesson, Delia
Dumitrescu, Hanna Landin, Christian Mohr and Linda Worbin who
all were parts of the experiments described in this thesis and that have
made it a pleasure to work with these projects. I would also like to thank
Ulf, Monica and Martin for constant support, Sambassadeur and friends
for inspiring adventures and Joachim for being a brilliant boyfriend.
The main part of the research was supported financially by Smart Textiles,
an initiative in the Vinnova Vinnväxt programme.
APPENDED PAPERS
1. Persson, A. and L. Worbin. 2008. Designing dynamic and
irreversible textile patterns, using a non-chemical design technique,
CTF Journal, issue 1, 2008.
2. Landin, H., Persson, A., Worbin, L. 2008. Electrical burn-outs -
a technique to design knitted dynamic patterns. Proceedings of
Ambience, June 2008, Borås, Sweden.
3. Dumitrescu, D. and A. Persson. 2008. Touching loops. Proceedings
of Futuro Textiel, November 2008, Kortrijk, Belgium.
4. Bondesson, A., Persson, A., Worbin, L. Textile dimensions -
an expressive textile interface. Proceedings of Autex, May 2009,
Izmir, Turkey.
EXHIBITIONS
A non-chemical ausbrenner design technique.
Together with Linda Worbin.
Exhibited at Rydals Museum, summer 2008
The burning tablecloth
Together with Hanna Landin and Linda Worbin
Exhibited at Cumulus International Design Conference, Kyoto, Japan
2008. Also exhibited at Rydals Museum, summer 2008
Touching loops
Together with Delia Dumitrescu
Exhibited at Rydals Museum, summer 2008

Textile dimensions
Together with Amy Bondesson and Linda Worbin
Exhibited at Rydals Museum, summer 2008

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION
2 AIM
3 BACKGROUND
3 A world of computers
3 Interaction design
5 Interaction design aesthetics
7 New fibres and interactive textiles
10 RELATED
14 METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES
14 Design research
16 Practise-based design research through experimental design
18 DESIGN PROGRAM
18 Tool kit
19 Function and interaction
20 Designing for visual and tactile elements of expression
21 Expression diagrams
23 EXPERIMENTS
23 A non-chemical ausbrenner design technique
29 The burning tablecloth
35 Touching loops
41 Textile dimensions
45 DISCUSSION
48 CONCLUSION
49 REFERENCES
55 PAPER 1
81 PAPER 2
93 PAPER 3
101 PAPER 4
111 APPENDIX i. Contribution in the common projects
113 APPENDIX ii. A non-chemical ausbrenner design technique
121 APPENDIX iii. The Burning Tablecloth
123 APPENDIX iv. Touching Loops
127 APPENDIX v. Textile Dimensions