Sensor Sleeve: Sensing Affective Gestures

We describe the use of textile sensors mounted in a garment sleeve to detect affective gestures. The `Sensor Sleeve' is part of a larger project to explore the role of affect in communications. Pressure activated, capacitive and elasto-resistive sensors are investigated and their relative merits reported on. An implemented application is outlined in which a cellphone receives messages derived from the sleeve's sensors using a Bluetooth interface, and relays the signals as text messages to the user's nominated partner.

This peer-reviewed published paper was presented at the 9th ISWC, Osaka, Japan, in November 2005, and is based on collaborative research between my AHRC fellowship programme (2003-2006), Cliff Randell, Computer Science Department, University of Bristol/the Equator IRC (2000-2006), a six-year Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration supported by EPSRC that focuses on the integration of physical and digital interaction, and Philippa Brock, a member of academic staff at Central Saint Martins. The ‘ Sensor Sleeve’ is part of a larger project (AHRC Fellowship) to explore the role of gesture, touch, presence and affect in mobile communications. This work is continuous with ‘Textile Tools for Wearable Computing’, C. Randell, S. Baurley, M. Chalmers, and H. Muller, Proceedings of the 1st International Forum on Applied Wearable Computing, Bremen, Germany, pages 63-74, March 2004 (ISSN 0340-3718), cited once. The issues explored in this research include the testing of the viability of commercially available woven and knitted conductive textiles for use as pressure activated, capacitive and elasto-resistive sensing technologies for recognition of touch and gestures. The work broadens the range of concerns for wearable technology to include textile design, and frames the design of woven textile sensor technologies and bus fabrics into one fabric. This is important for the field, and is evidenced by the nature of this research collaboration and the conference/proceedings publisher. Fabrics that use conductive fibres to sense pressure, capacitance and electrical skin resistance to sense proximity, and conductive threads to determine stretch, were all tested within a garment configuration. Connecting the sensors via Bluetooth to a cell phone enabling affective text messages to be sent to a nominated recipient was also tested. The chapter makes reference to a number of key centres in the fields of sensing technology and affective computing, gesture recognition technology, such as MIT, Sony and Philips.