Flutter, a shirt deeply embedding sensing, computation, actuation and communication to direct the deaf

Intelligent Cloth

We wish to make garments intelligent by deeply embedding sensing, computation, actuation and computation into the fabric. These smart fabrics will be amorphous and can cut into arbitrary shapes, yet maintain their function as there is no “central” computational element.

We are currently focusing on concept work that relies on embedding identical microcontrollers that are networked with each other throughout the material. The first instance of such a work is “Flutter”, a t-shirt that can help deaf people to localize the direction of sound. The shirt embeds a network of microphones to detect the direction of sounds and display them via vibrating winglets on the shirt’s surface. Each microphone locally performs a Fast-Fourier-Transform (FFT) to determine frequencies and their amplitude of incoming sounds. These information are then shared between microphones to detect the position of the strongest sample.

Team

• Halley Profita
• Nicholas Farrow

Microcontroller arrangement and networking without textiles

Publications

H. Profita, N. Farrow and N. Correll. Flutter. In adjunct Proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC), pages 44-46, Newcastle upon Tyne, June 2012.

Related

• Flutter wins first prizes at the ISWC design exhibition

Funding

• National Science Foundation

Media Coverage

• Sexy Microphone Dress Doubles as Hearing Aid by Alyssa Danigelis, DiscoveryNews, August 31, 2012.
• Fashionable Flutter dress lets wearer “feel” the sound by Asmita Prasad, Gizmowatch.com, August 31, 2012.
• Flutter is a dress that doubles as a hearing aid by Hazel Chua, Technabob.com, August 30, 2012.
• Flutter dress comes with built-in microphones to let the hearing impaired “feel” their surroundings by Tyler Lee, Ubergizmo.com, August 29, 2012.
• Flutter – Functional Garment for the Hearing Impaired – way sexier than hearing aids by Troy Turner, Yanko Design, August 29, 2012.
• Flutter dress by Halley Profita helps the deaf to sense the environment by Jack Evan, PcGerms.com, August 29, 2012.
• Flutter: Hörhilfe-Hemd informiert über Tonsignale und deren Richtung by Bianca Appelmann, Techfieber.de, August 21, 2012.
• Flutter Fusion of Textile and Robotics by Ujagar Singh, Gizfactory.com, August 3, 2012.
• FLUTTER – Makes you feel your surroundings, RoundedOff.com, August 2, 2012.
• Flutter dress brings high fashion to the hearing impaired, CrunchWear.com, July 28, 2012.