E-textiles#
Global Instructor: Liza Stark
As technology evolves and textiles transform from passive materials into interactive and intelligent systems, this module introduces participants to the emerging field of electronic textiles (e-textiles) and wearable technology.
Participants explore how conductive fabrics and yarns, hard–soft connections, crafted analog and digital sensors can be combined to create soft circuits embedded into textiles. The module combines electronic textiles, material literacy, electronics components and interaction design, introducing microcontrollers and Arduino programming for circuit design. Hand stitching, sewing, digital embroidery and laser cutting techniques are applied to prototype analog and digital textile sensors, integrating them into e-textile swatches.
Program outline#
- Introduction to e-textiles: why soft, why embedding
- What are electricity and circuits? How does electricity move and what are voltage, resistance and current.
- Conductive and resistive materials: Fabrics, Threads, Inks and beyond
- Tools and techniques: Vinyl/laser cut, multimeter, soldering iron, embroidery and sewing techniques
- Hard/soft connections: Machine-sewable, Crimp beads, Conductive thread to perfboard & sewable metal, wire to conductive fabrics or threads
- Soft sensors: Switch, Tilt and Joystick; Pressure, stroke, bend & stretch sensors; Potentiometers and accelerometers
- Programming: microcontrollers, code, sensors and resistors
- Tips for making data meaningful
Tools/Software#
- Multimeter
- Soldering iron (Soldering station)
- Pliers, wire stripper, flush snips, tweezers
- Embroidery / Sewing machine
- Needles
- Arduino IDE
Materials#
| Material | Details |
|---|---|
| Fabrics & Yarns | resistive/conductive fabrics |
| Inks | resistive/conductive or thermochromic inks |
| Velostat | pressure-sensitive conductive sheet |
| Snap metal buttons | +Metallic zippers |
| Copper tape | + isulating tape |
| Actuators | Mini vibration motors, speakers… |
| Wires | jumpers, alligator clips |
| Microcontroller | Arduino, ATtiny, etc |
| Leds | sewable (neo)pixels |
Assignment#
- Fabricademy participants will have to produce one digital and one analog soft sensor experimenting with the materials available at the lab.
- They will have to use arduino to read and understand their soft sensor.
- Try to reproduce the same sensor with different materials/techniques (hard/hard hard/soft soft/soft):
- Create your one digital and one analogue soft sensor
- Program a LED interaction with your soft sensor
- Intergate it in a swatch using hard-soft connections
Evaluation and assessment#
Check the Assessment Criteria
References#
Fabricademy Tutorials - E-textiles
- Kobakant - conductive materials
- Conductive materials - hard soft connections - soft sensors