This paper explores the social meaning of clothing-based displays of biosignals. How do friends make sense of their own and each other's skin conductance display in the context of a conversation? We developed Hint, a dynamic thermochromic t-shirt whose ambiguous pattern changes color when its wearer's skin conductance increases, an indication of sudden arousal. We investigated how pairs of friends each wearing the shirt conversed and interpreted the display. Participants shared a broad range of interpretations; e.g., joy and embarrassment were associated with an increase in skin conductance. Additionally, participants expressed desires for their skin conductance display to help validate their feelings and show emotional engagement with others. We explore ambiguity in the context of clothing-based information displays and discuss how skin conductance display became part of social performance in our study. From there, we suggest framing biosignals as social cues along with facial expression, gestures, etc., and begin to question what design territories this might uncover.

This paper explores the role dynamic textile displays play in relation to personal style: What does it mean to wear computationally responsive clothing and why would one be motivated to do so? We developed a novel textile display technology, called Ebb, and created several woven and crochet fabric swatches that explored clothing-specific design possibilities. We engaged fashion designers and non-designers in imagining how Ebb would integrate into their design practice or personal style of dressing. Participants evaluated the appeal and utility of clothing-based displays according to a very different set of criteria than traditional screen-based computational displays. Specifically, the slowness, low-resolution, and volatility of Ebb tended to be seen as assets as opposed to technical limitations in the context of personal style. Additionally, participants envisioned various ways that ambiguous, ambient, and abstract displays of information could prompt new experiences in their everyday lives. Our paper details the complex relationships between display and personal style and offers a new design metaphor and extension of Gaver et al.'s original descriptions of ambiguity in order to guide the design of clothing-based displays for everyday life.

Project Jacquard presents manufacturing technologies that enable deploying invisible ubiquitous interactivity at scale. We propose novel interactive textile materials that can be manufactured inexpensively using existing textile weaving technology and equipment.

We present a multimodal on-surface and near-surface sensing technique for planar, curved and flexible surfaces. Our technique leverages temporal multiplexing of signals coming from a universal interdigitated electrode design, which is printed as a single conductive layer on a flexible substrate. It supports sensing of touch and proximity input, and moreover is capable of capturing several levels of pressure and flexing. We leverage recent developments in conductive inkjet printing as a way to prototype electrode patterns, and combine this with our hardware module for supporting the full range of sensing methods. As the technique is low-cost and easy to implement, it is particularly well-suited for prototyping touch- and hover-based user interfaces, including curved and deformable ones.

We present Mime, a compact, low-power 3D sensor for unencumbered free-form, single-handed gestural interaction with head-mounted displays (HMDs). Mime introduces a real-time signal processing framework that combines a novel three-pixel time-of-flight (TOF) module with a standard RGB camera. The TOF module achieves accurate 3D hand localization and tracking, and it thus enables motion-controlled gestures. The joint processing of 3D information with RGB image data enables finer, shape-based gestural interaction.

We propose cutting as a novel paradigm for ad-hoc customization of printed electronic components. As a first instantiation, we contribute a printed capacitive multi-touch sensor, which can be cut by the end-user to modify its size and shape. This very direct manipulation allows the end-user to easily make real-world objects and surfaces touch-interactive, to augment physical prototypes and to enhance paper craft. We contribute a set of technical principles for the design of printable circuitry that makes the sensor more robust against cuts, damages and removed areas. This includes novel physical topologies and printed forward error correction. A technical evaluation compares different topologies and shows that the sensor remains functional when cut to a different shape.

In this paper we describe the design and implementation of a new versatile, scalable and cost-effective sensate surface. The system is based on a new conductive inkjet technology, which allows capacitive sensor electrodes and different types of RF antennas to be cheaply printed onto a roll of flexible substrate that may be many meters long. By deploying this surface on (or under) a floor it is possible to detect the presence and whereabouts of users through both passive and active capacitive coupling schemes. We have also incorporated GSM and NFC electromagnetic radiation sensing and piezoelectric pressure and vibration detection. We report on a number of experiments which evaluate sensing performance based on a 2.5m x 0.3m hardware test-bed. We describe some potential applications for this technology and highlight a number of improvements we have in mind.

We present a novel approach to the creation of user-generated, documentary video using a distributed network of sensor-enabled video cameras and wearable on-body sensor devices. The wearable sensors are used to identify the subjects in view of the camera system and label the captured video with real-time human-centric social and physical behavioral information. With these labels, massive amounts of continually recorded video can be browsed, searched, and automatically stitched into cohesive multimedia content. This system enables naturally occurring human behavior to drive and control a multimedia content creation system in order to create video output that is understandable, informative, and/or enjoyable to its human audience. The collected sensor data is further utilized to enhance the created multimedia content such as by using the data to edit and/or generate audio score, determine appropriate pacing of edits, and control the length and type of audio and video transitions directly from the content of the captured media. We present the design of the platform, the design of the multimedia content creation application, and the evaluated results from several live runs of the complete system.