A friend of mine- she´s studying in textiles- creates a sixty centimeters length woven fabric with conductive thread (32 Ohm per foot).

Depends on a project last year I want to research a haptical interface. Puredata is a good soundtool. I and a friend of mine want to use these force to taste vibrations on surfaces. For this we need an interface- and we take a hand near me object- a glove. The interface creates some feeling for surfaces touched! I have some lillypad stuff of my tablecloth project to experiment!

The pattern of the sewed glove;


We sew the cloth with a lillypad, an accelerometer, two light resistors and a force resistance sensor. When the forefinger with a microphon in front of it is on the surface, the glove records and samples the sound. Then you can modify with move your hand in all directions and gestures these samples. The question was to know, how the finger oscillates when it swept over rough materials. We will hear it? You can- click the video below!

Here you can download our patch (Sebastian Muellauer, Clemens Winkler)

You need to install the pduino.zip patch for puredata and the newest firmata.

video sketch

The technics are the results of thoughts and learning about skins. I want to use carbon fibres and thermochromic pigments for using in special structures.
Bring the units in epoxy and canvas layers;

I want to investigate time to public my results and present it!

I think that computer technology should involve new or more alternative ways for how it can be used. It is often used just to control things, but it can also expose, create and be controlled by. In my works I used lots of batteries. In further work a better power management should be investigated;)

Creating signs of time as traces on a surface. You don´t know what and where the signs are growing. You cause a reaction, like as contact something, but it seems to be generate in chaotic way. But on full table with other peoples- you put your glass and activate each others bottle- you see your logical meaning of translate a trace to another point. The “interactive Tablecloth” is a textile, which attempts to activate human- human interaction. The way it works looks not justified but the software in the fabric report the last interactions with it. So when you are alone you see in last time there was a great meal at this table. See what traces activate in time again and how the people before interact among each other.

The fading effect is marginal- in a way not so officious. Here a photo from near the textile

In the example shown the voltage is turned on , that´s why the heated thread colored the pattern. The static pattern becomes dynamic;
The informations are shown in a material-specific way!

the first prototype; I want to control the heated thread directly , but it very long time to fade into another color.
I take the arduino lillypad to a darlington transistor to switch 9 Voltage to the fabric and it works!

.the sensors; I want to create a digital on/ off when something put on the tablecloth! I build six textile switches with conductive thread and normal thread to keep the two layers apart. The picture shows the bottom side of the second layer;

the finished sewed second layer;
a conductive thread with high resistance for creating heat-

The bottom layer contained the arduino, input drifts, energy sources and transistors;

I build a connection between the layers

the thesis shown in realtime;

You put something on a tablecloth and you see a reaction.

communication- relation between actor and reaction

the intention;
To communicate consists an action and a reaction.
My prototype should communicate with the actors. The users communicate in a more subtle way to the tablecloth. The tablecloth answers in a its own way to connect each other at the table. Finally I want to create a “human-human interaction device”.
Dynamic patterns, which can change over time, can be used as a
tool for communication. With the helping of heat I can create these patterns in time.
A table is a place where you communicate. It is THE interaction plattform for me now;
You put the glass, pick the fork or take a lump.
So, the more colourful and large the pattern is, the longer
the meal before was.
The traces are the recordings of a mini story in the past.

Package- Technical implementation and Material:

Different fabrics in layers can be sandwiched together with heat elements in between
and a screen print with thermochromical print on the top layer.

layer 1)
The toplayer with screenprinted thermochromical pigment. It reacts to heated conductive threads in layer 2 and hot cups you put on it.

layer 2)
I sew the conductive thread. When something is on the table its heating up and creating dynamic patterns.

layer 3)
Here are six touch sensors, the arduino lillypad, the energy source (a AAA band a 9V battery) and transistors. When one of the sensors pushed down the arduino noticed the signal and I lead it to one of the outputs to powered the heating thread in second layer via darlington transistors.

I decided to work with textiles, cause its can be manipulate in the synthesis. All of technique is washable (as manufacterer promised).

To control the input output of my interactive clothes I uses a arduino lilypad- also from sparkfun.com
It has a 5 Volt in- and output. powered by a “AAA-battery”.I downloaded and burned the bootloader for the ATmega168 from arduino.cc.

to program and work with the lillypad I build this USB interface connected with 5v power supplie.,.GND TX and RX