CurveBoards are breadboards integrated into physical objects. In contrast to traditional breadboards, CurveBoards better preserve the object's look and feel while maintaining high circuit fluidity, which enables designers to exchange and reposition components during design iteration. Since CurveBoards are fully functional, i.e., the screens are displaying content and the buttons take user input, designers can test interactive scenarios and log interaction data on the physical prototype while still being able to make changes to the component layout and circuit design as needed. We present an interactive editor that enables users to convert 3D models into CurveBoards and discuss our fabrication technique for making CurveBoard prototypes. We also provide a technical evaluation of CurveBoard's conductivity and durability and summarize informal user feedback.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376617
We present a novel method for augmenting arbitrary fabrics with textile-based pressure sensors using an off-the-shelf embroidery machine. We apply resistive textiles and conductive yarns on top of a base fabric, to yield a flexible and versatile continuous sensing device, which is based on the widespread principle of force sensitive resistors. The patches can easily be attached to measurement and/or computing devices, e.g. for controlling accessories. In this paper, we investigate the impacts of related design and fabrication parameters, introduce five different pattern designs, and discuss their pros and cons. We present crucial insights and recommendations for design and manufacturing of embroidered pressure sensors. Our sensors show a very low activation threshold, as well as good dynamic range, signal-to-noise ratio, and part-to-part repeatability.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376305
E-textile microinteractions advance cord-based interfaces by enabling the simultaneous use of precise continuous control and casual discrete gestures. We leverage the recently introduced I/O Braid sensing architecture to enable a series of user studies and experiments which help design suitable interactions and a real-time gesture recognition pipeline. Informed by a gesture elicitation study with 36 participants, we developed a user-dependent classifier for eight discrete gestures with 94% accuracy for 12 participants. In a formal evaluation we show that we can enable precise manipulation with the same architecture. Our quantitative targeting experiment suggests that twisting is faster than existing headphone button controls and is comparable in speed to a capacitive touch surface. Qualitative interview feedback indicates a preference for I/O Braid's interaction over that of in-line headphone controls. Our applications demonstrate how continuous and discrete gestures can be combined to form new, integrated e-textile microinteraction techniques for real-time continuous control, discrete actions and mode switching.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376236
Computer mice have their displacement sensors in various locations (center, front, and rear). However, there has been little research into the effects of sensor position or on engineering approaches to exploit it. This paper first discusses the mechanisms via which sensor position affects mouse movement and reports the results from a study of a pointing task in which the sensor position was systematically varied. Placing the sensor in the center turned out to be the best compromise: improvements over front and rear were in the 11-14% range for throughput and 20--23% for path deviation. However, users varied in their personal optima. Accordingly, variable-sensor-position mice are then presented, with a demonstration that high accuracy can be achieved with two static optical sensors. A virtual sensor model is described that allows software-side repositioning of the sensor. Individual-specific calibration should yield an added 4% improvement in throughput over the default center position.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376735
The pervasive availability of media in foreign languages is a rich resource for language learning. However, learners are forced to interrupt media consumption whenever comprehension problems occur. We present BrainCoDe, a method to implicitly detect vocabulary gaps through the evaluation of event-related potentials (ERPs). In a user study (N=16), we evaluate BrainCoDe by investigating differences in ERP amplitudes during listening and reading of known words compared to unknown words. We found significant deviations in N400 amplitudes during reading and in N100 amplitudes during listening when encountering unknown words. To evaluate the feasibility of ERPs for real-time applications, we trained a classifier that detects vocabulary gaps with an accuracy of 87.13% for reading and 82.64% for listening, identifying eight out of ten words correctly as known or unknown. We show the potential of BrainCoDe to support media learning through instant translations or by generating personalized learning content.