Most textiles in day-to-day use are products of weaving. The versatility of this manufacturing technique, which readily supports a multi-layered structure, inclusion of several yarn types, malleability and other valuable characteristics, has attracted attention from HCI researchers intrigued by its potential to expand the interaction capabilities of e-textiles. Research nonetheless has barely scratched the surface of the wealth of weaving techniques and woven structures available. Therefore, a design-research project anchored in practice investigated how touch-sensitive e-textiles’ capabilities might be enriched via advanced multi-layer weaving techniques. The research process, which drew inspiration from literature both on textile design and on woven e-textiles, produced 25 distinct e-textile samples. Results from evaluating the structural properties, electrical capabilities and overall utility of each point to numerous unexplored opportunities from woven multi-layer e-textiles. Even holding potential for entirely new forms of interaction, these represent promising starting points for in-depth investigation.

Advances to functional materials and flexible electronics have yielded new means of integrating electrical properties into textile materials, which invite researchers in various fields to apply woven-textile construction methods in eTextile development. However, common ground for woven eTextiles’ prototyping is still taking shape. This calls for greater understanding of how the knowledge now scattered across diverse research fields can benefit the textiles’ development for HCI. To investigate how eTextile research has employed weaving and extract insight for HCI purposes, the authors reviewed and categorised applications of woven structures and electrical functions, then identified specifically HCI-relevant qualities and means of creating them via weaving. The paper outlines those woven structures useful for HCI and advocates consistent weaving-related terminology, to improve knowledge transfer across disciplines. In addition, the results point to research opportunities involving haptic qualities, the ability to weave multiple layers, functionality integration, and tools and methods.

Making programmable physical artefacts and prototypes has inherent value for Research-through-Design (RtD) based HCI. Furthermore, the abstractions and representations within RtD and programming are vastly different, such as between observations, storyboards and the code. Studies have shown that the program of an artefact influences the RtD outcome, but there is also a disconnect between the observations of use and the abstractions involved in the programming. How can we program an artefact so that the code can be created, modified and reflected upon based on directly observable and non-technical abstractions? In this paper we present Storycoding, a computational-thinking based method for programming that focuses on bridging the representational abstractions. Using Storycoded artefacts, we examine programming in light of RtD. We discuss how Storycoding enables programming that is directly observable between the use and the abstractions, being respectful towards RtD. Finally, we conclude with implications towards HCI research and practice.

Despite the increasing amount of smart textile design practitioners, the methods and tools commonly available have not progressed to the same scale. Most smart textile interaction designs today rely on detecting changes in resistance. The tools and sensors for this are generally limited to DC-voltage-divider based sensors and multimeters. Furthermore, the textiles and the materials used in smart textile design can exhibit behaviour making it difficult to identify even simple interactions using those means. For instance, steel-based textiles exhibit intrinsic semiconductive properties that are difficult to identify with current methods. In this paper, we show an alternative way to measure interaction with smart textiles. By relying on visualisation known as Lissajous-figures and frequency-based signals, we can detect even subtle and varied forms of interaction with smart textiles. We also show an approach to measuring frequency-based signals and present an Arduino-based system called Teksig to support this type of textile practice.

To situate the skills of the textile designer within the HCI-process, we present a case of a hand puppet with a purpose-woven smart textile pattern. The qualities found in traditional textile design are tacitly synthesized into the eTextile-design process. We see this mentality as having a natural dialogue with HCI-practice. The hand puppet consists of two layers: an inner sensor glove, designed to detect the movements of the user's fingers, and a woven outer layer that has a touch sensitive user interface integrated into its woven structure. The two interfaces can be operated simultaneously by two separate users; an adult and a child. Our interest is to understand better how the traditional textile design variables can be utilized in the user interface and -experience design. We aim towards the synthesis of woven eTextile design, consisting of user interface design, pattern design, sensor structure design and textile layout design.

We present the design, development and evaluation of a bi-directional inductive power transfer circuit for prototyping purposes in the watt-range. Our device does not require any configuration and is intended for the development of wearable and tangible systems. Our approach allows a bi-directional power flow without any change in the circuit, such that the same circuit can be used for charging and discharging a battery. The contribution of this work is an enabling technology for researchers and practitioners in the fields of Wearable Electronics, Ubiquitous Computing and Human-Computer Interaction interested in exploring new interactions powered by watt-range inductive links. It enables smaller battery sizes, and therefore lighter devices, as the power can be distributed in a way that has not been feasible before. We discuss the motivations, technical details and the workshop evaluating our inductive approach.

Consumption of shared resources in public locations can be understood as being socially invisible. In order to focus attention to the energy consumption in such environments, a design intervention was carried out over a two-week period to deliver electricity usage as collective knowledge. Ambient office lighting was selected as a platform, and the system implemented informed the users of the environment the changes in the resource consumption that the users had control over. The users of the office space were asked to keep track of their experiences and were interviewed at the end of the test period. The decrease in energy consumption was significant, and the intervention managed to increase social visibility of shared energy use. Such an approach of integrating collective resource use and communication suggests further exploration.

Energy consumption that takes place because of industrial sheltered living through amenities such as lighting, heat, ventilation and air conditioning is not fully deciphered by the users when in use, especially in shared public spaces. Here we describe a design intervention, where users in a shared workspace are made aware of the energy consumption and its pattern of use due to ambient lighting through text messages on their personal mobile devices. The text messages contained specially treated information about the energy consumption. This poster describes the design intervention through the prototype description of a 'Usage Responsive Space'.

This paper presents the main results of a three-year long field and design study of proactive information technology in the home. This technology uses sensors to track human activities in order to proactively anticipate the direction of human activity. With it, it could be possible to build an environment without buttons and remote controls. However, the home represents a series of design challenges for proactive technology. This paper describes how we have identified suitable areas for proactive designs with user research, how we built several "minidesigns" and experience prototypes, and how we tested them in a series of five field studies in the Tampere and Helsinki regions in Finland. The paper ends with a section in which we outline some of the main design principles learned in these studies, and point directions for studies in the future.