New interaction languages are emerging as technology becomes integrated into accessories and garments that we wear. As the “right click” has become usurped by the “swipe,” will the wink or nod of the head soon become the ubiquitous gesture to interact with our wearable devices?
aBeanie, designed by industrial designer Alex Jurtan, explores new ways of interacting with our music that bypasses buttons and touch screens. Jurtan has transformed a wool beanie into an interactive touch and gesture interface to control your music experience.
Personally, I feel that head gestures are quite tricky and a problematic approach to interfacing with our technology. Watch anyone wearing Glass and you’ll quickly conclude that head nods and tilts are more awkward than intuitive. This leaves room for exciting interaction design research and huge opportunities to create new and novel ways to interact with our devices, as I assume, was Jurtan’s intuition with aBeanie.