Scarf with electrically operated massager

Scarf with electrically operated massager United States Patent 6537235, by Connor, Clara (Fountain Valley, CA, US) and Busto, Ernest J. (Cypress, CA, US), March 2003.

A combination massager and scarf assembly having a number of electrical motors secured in a flexible casing, which flexible casing is removably secured in the interior of the scarf. The scarf is wrapped around the flexible casing and the motors in the casing are electrically connected to a control box having an A.C. or D.C. power supply to actuate the electrical motors. The control box includes a knob to regulate the speed of vibration of the motors.

A wearable artificial skin

"Our own skin and hair is the largest organ of the human body: a tactile reactive interface which special metaphorical connotations of communication and sensitivity." M. Lappe and J. Holt.

The e-Skin project aims at developing a novel type of wearable interface which mimics the sensory capabilities of the human skin. The interface consists of a multilayered flexible hightech textile and senses stimuli both on its outside and inside surface. At the same time the interface possesses actuation mechanisms to provide tactile feedback through its inside and outside surfaces.

"The ability of the skin to acquire and process information rivals our senses of sight and hearing."

e-Skin is a research initiative to create an interface based on the modalities of the human skin (temperature, vibration, pressure, proprioception). It is a tactile interface consisting both of sensors and actuators, a wearable artificial skin and a navigation aid in space.

Touch: a meaning system socially and culturally located

Today, I met with Anne Cranny-Francis based in the Department of Critical and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University. Her web site is a great ressource of references, hyperlinks to papers related to the meaning of touch.

I presented and discussed my research on touch simulation for persons with neurological and pathological disorders. She works on the touch project to understand touch as a meaning system that is socially and culturally located. "The project is concerned with the diversity and specificity of touch as it is experienced by people in their everyday lives. Touch is one of our fundamental ways of negotiating the world and each other. It is specific to different genders, classes, cultures, ages – for all of whom the same physical touch may mean very different things."

She wrote a paper The Midas Touch to re-think the representation of touch. "Its essential argument is that touch defines our being in the world, so that touch is always already a cultural and political practice."

A must-read paper for me as soon as it is published: somatic technologies

My argument is conducted via a series of encounters: a reading of the figure of Christ’s body in late Middle Ages devotional texts, in which the hybridity of Christ is both celebrated and fetishised; the recent appearance of hybrid and cyborg figures in the Stephen Sommers’ film, Van Helsing (2004) and the excess of religious (mostly Christian) references throughout the film; and a mapping of the homologies between the figures of Christ crucified and Sommers’ representation of Dracula, which suggests their interrelationship. This paper is based in a belief in the inextricable relationship between embodiment and the technologies (material, cultural and political) that generate it, the semiotic density of those technologies, and their iterative deployment to generate new ideas – about technology and about embodiment.

Touch · Sensitive Apparel

What if objects that people carry with them and even carry on them could offer this sensory comfort that they seem to seek?

Together with Yas I have codevelopped a touch-sensitive apparel for massage and sensory therapy. The research focuses on the material - how the structure and the embedded components of the garment participate in pushing its function to become an envelope or cocoon for one's well-being.

Touch·Sensitive is a haptic apparel that allows massage therapy to be diffused, customized and controlled by people while on the move. Made of modular garments, it applies personalized stimuli. Touch·Sensitive aims to provide individuals with a sensory cocoon, a comforting and alerting apparel with a feedback system. Our design for the Touch·Sensitive apparel comes from the observation that people need to sooth their body to protect themselves from everyday aggressions. Touch·Sensitive is a matrix made of clothing elements that allows diffusion of tactile information through heat sensors, mechanically-driven textural sensation and liquid diffusion.

The following is a series of our Low-Fidelity prototypes.

LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE #1

This wired apparel alerts the user by mechanically shrinking the fabric onto specific points of tensions on the body.

LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE #2

The second low-fidelity prototype of Touch·Sensitive is made of buttons with silicone.

LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE #3

Manually inflatable vinyl pockets can be used to receive a comforting pressure

LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE #4

Structure flex

Touch·Sensitive allows the diffusion of tactile information through computational and mechanical technologies. It is a computerized touch therapy apparel whose modular pieces can be integrated within the clothing. We have taken advantage of the growing miniaturization of computational components to integrate them seamlessly within the fabric.

Keep tuned!

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Touch · Sensitive Apparel work-in-progress 6 pages paper has been accepted to CHI 2007. Come see Yas and I in Saint Jose from April 28-May 3 2007!

Abstract
Touch·Sensitive is a haptic apparel that allows massage therapy to be diffused, customized and controlled by people while on the move. It provides individuals with a sensory cocoon. Made of modular garments, Touch·Sensitive applies personalized stimuli. We present the design process and a series of low fidelity prototypes that lead us to the Touch·Sensitive Apparel.



Download pdf of the paper

Fashion garments

Picture of our X-mode project

Creating, discussing, sharing, building with Yaz on fashion garments (statement coming soon). A few sketches of our nurturing ideas ...



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