Hi! on behalf of my co-authors, in this video I will present our work Crafting Research Products through Digital Machine Embroidery
it is known that crafting soft wearables is complex because it combines challenges from many sides
there's technology, interaction design, fashion and the specific context of application
as designers, we are invited to apply and develop techniques and knowledge that are from outside our traditional range
that often means tha we work iteratively and that we increase the complexity and levels of fidelity of prototypes as we go
often relying on manual fabrication
This way of working presents a few challenges. One of them is the possibility of comparing prototypes
due to their varying levels of realization and the inaccuracy of reproductions, that's quite difficult to do
another point about the fidelity of prototypes is that the conditions in which we will be testing them
and that we will be actually using them are on the moving body
and that demands a high level of fidelity in terms of aesthetics and the material properties, that maybe other types of prototypes might not require
to achieve those high levels of fidelity and so on, it does require quite a bit of skill
and while examples of of interesting wearable concepts and applications abound
there is still little guidance for design researchers as to how to realize such prototypes in a high level of detail
Therefore, as a community we need to develop guidance and disseminate knowledge for how to make the best use of relevant fabrication techniques
to support the development soft wearables as research products, prototypes of high level of finish and detail
In our work, we explored the potential and implications of using digital machine embroidery to craft such types of prototypes
we chose this technique because of its versatility
Digital machine embroidery has been used in HCI in many applications to create soft circuitry
different types of sensors, actuators and so on
We argue that it can also enable the fabrication of reproducible research products, supporting very hands-on processes
to do so, in our process we used this machine to create the textile substrate together with integrating
or embedding electronic components through a unified process whilst keeping high control over alterations between prototypes
this free-standing textile substrate is created by means of a technique called chemical embroidery
in which designs are embroidered on a water-soluble stabilizer, like what you can see in this picture
Once this stabilizer is washed off, you're left with your textile
We demonstrate this approach through the case of the smart sock
a sock that was developed as part of a bigger research effort that aimed to develop solutions for the recovery
of trauma patients with surgically treated fractures of the lower extremities through early weight-bearing
The project was developed between 2015 and 2017 through the collaboration of many departments
between IDEE, Maastricht UMC+, Maastricht University, Adelante and Eindhoven University of Technology
The aim was to develop a system to measure several parameters related to weight division, unwinding of the foot and
indicators of overload which are typically evaluated in clinical practice
To do so, the system would compare data from pressure sensors on the sock worn on the affected foot to each other
as well as with the ones on the other sock. Therefore, the reproducibility of the design and sensor alignment were crucial
Our design process, thanks to this technqiue, was highly paced, resulting in two proofs of concept, two prototypes and seven research products
The proofs of concept were constructed with off-the shelf components with the purpose of determining
the number of sensors and their location under the foot
based on them, it was defined that each sock would contain 5 pressure sensors and one accelerometer
both prototypes and research products were fabricated through digital machine embroidery
and, in terms of embroidered elements, they were very similar. The difference was their function.
The prototypes served to explore the fabrication technique
and the research products were used to collect data to develop and validate the algorithm
by undergoing this process, we experienced how the use of digital machine embroidery can be a strong tool for crafting soft wearables
as the main advantages, we recognized that it is, first and foremost, a low entry fabrication technique both regarding skills
so that makes it quite friendly towards non-textile experts, but also equipment because you can get similar levels of
sophistication in your outcomes using both domestic and more advanced semi-professional machines
the stability of embroidery frame and accurate positioning of the needle are quite helpful in general which allows for appliqué techniques
and in the case of these types of prototypes, it can also be very helpful to embed components during the sewing process
the freedom of routing is crucial for creation of soft circuits but also, in our case, proved to supportive in exploring the qualities of the substrates
and, of course, the reproducibility which allows us to have high control over small alterations between designs
which, on one hand, gives us freedom to explore while knowing that that we can recreate the results that we are interested in
or go back to what we had before if they don't pan out
and, lastly, the unification of the process: creating the textile substrate, in their final shape, together with integrating the technology
which reduced the burden of constructing garments
a big aspect of the approach was identifying the techniques and design elements that we could use in our prototypes
the embroidered elements that we used in our prototypes and research products included
substrates, support pads, placeholders, conductive traces, contact pads, sensor components and insulation
the three most significant elements were, obviously, the sensors for being the most relevant to the main goal project
the contact pads because, as much as they are very simple and obvious, they facilitated the high pace of our process
by allowing us to easily attach and detachable control unit that contained the bulk of the electronics
so that we could different prototypes
and, for us the most interesting, the substrates
which were embroidered in the final shapes of the prototype parts, simplifying the fabrication process and opening up opportunities for exploration
we found that by changing sewing attributes or layering designs in certain ways, we could influence the material properties of the embroidery
both globally or locally, and we could create material behaviors, like stretch, for example by doing so
we observed a few implications of using embroidery as a means of crafting research products
and we narrowed them down to three aspects: sensor alignment, layering & manipulating fabric character and shaping & construction.
in terms of the sensor alignment, as mentioned before, this was a key point for the project
so that the sensor readings for both feet could be comparable
our approach allowed exploring and changing different aspects of the designs through an integrated solution
while still preserving the relative position of the sensors
Changes made served to optimize designs, explore their aesthetic and material properties, to include new components
as you can see in the example of this picture, for example. There was a PCB that was added in Research Product 1
or to investigate the performance of various sensor designs - which was what happened most in this project
the great advantage we found in embroidery is that you can layer up
if you see this image, you have different layers on top of each other and in the end, they look and behave as one
so we found opportunities for manipulating this behavior and to add functions to the substrate locally
like using a patch as support pad to protect a PCB and prevent its interconnections from getting loose
these are some things we’d like to further explore, as well as what would be the effect of different yarn choices
which we only briefly investigated by reproducing some of our prototypes in other kinds of thread
it would be interesting to see what they would do to the material properties of substrates so that we can better understand how to design them
lastly, Shaping & Construction. Shaping was a very important part of our process since the substrates are shaped as soles on the machine
similar to other digital fabrication techniques, a limitation of this one is the work-envelope
if we were not limited by the maximum sewing area of our embroidery machine or if we were willing to trade accuracy for size
perhaps it would have been possible to use our insights on material properties to further explore shaping the full wearable at once
rather than in three separate parts, as you can see above - actually more if you count the top electrodes
but the form factor itself was done in three parts
To conclude, through the case of the Smart Sock, we demonstrated a path of crafting soft wearables
in the form of research products by means of digital machine embroidery
Our experience shows promise in further exploring how to design the material qualities and properties of free-standing embroidered substrates
which opens up opportunities to research end-to-end fabrication of wearable research products
future steps could include moving further towards a design language of digital embroidery
and to further engage with investigation of how to manipulate material properties of the embroidered substrates
We’d like to finish by thanking the multidisciplinary team involved in this project
it was a great process and I am very thankful for everyone who participated
if you are interested in knowing more about our work, please have a look at our paper and contact us if you have any questions. Thank you for watching!