With the development of wearable technology products, the need for different types of user interactions arises. Often the interaction language from one field is borrowed and supplanted onto another with ill results. No, we don’t want a red push button switch on our clothes. And yet again no — we really don’t want to “zip” things on and off if the zipper already performs an important function.
So a need to develop a new interaction language — a new BUI (Bodily User Interface) of sorts arises. Assembly, a research project by Emily Carr University student Lorea Sinclaire, explores different bodily gestures to interact with a mobile phone.
Interactions such as buttoning a coat, sends a signal of your location while stroking your hemline will send out a call to a friend. My personal favorite, hugging yourself and swiping your outer arms, signals you need help.
Assembly just skims the possible gestural and bodily interactions a user may use to interface with their mobile devices but it does begin to imagine a world where body language becomes a novel way to communicate with our electronic objects.
In addition to exploring a BUI, Assembly also explores haptic feedback as a form of notification. The intensity of the vibration from the motors located in the coat indicates the priority of the notification.
The wearable prototype is made using conductive thread sewn to detachable electronic modules. The flexible system is designed in a modular fashion so it can be upgraded with ease.
