1. State of the art, project management and documentation#

We began the week with an introduction to Textile Academy and its values. A core value which emerged from the presentation and subsequent sharing and discussion was that of equality. Allowing for the emergence of equatable relationships involves establishing avenues to question, to understand and to be safe from harm/s (as pertains to environment, wellbeing and security) so as to delineate space within which to safely share, create and belong in a community. The ability to delineate a safe space within which to share values and information is crucial, thus setting up micro systems that link to macro structures is a logical first step.

Textile Academy and Fab Lab preference the use of Wiki as a means to share information due to its open structure and creative potential. Wiki is an online database that provides means to present and link information collaboratively and effectively, in an equitable, secure way. To engage with and contribute to a community of makers in the FabLab and Textile Academy networks, wiki is used to create and share content.

Content is shared across local and global networks through wiki, thus democratising information and its dissemination. Research is conducted transparently, referenced and documented thoroughly and shared across networks.

In order to create a new site, it is necessary to generate an SSH (secure shell) key. SSH is an encryption protocal enabling secure communication across unsecure networks. The site was secured by locally generating an SSH key via Terminal, and linking this to GitLab. The site is written in markdown syntax, edited in GitLab.

Proposed Final Project#

The project proposes a wearable device which supports asthma management in children - a “Breathing Blanket”

Context#

According to the World Health Organisation (2008), Asthma affects over 235 million people worldwide, with the director general warning that Asthma is on the rise everywhere. Asthma is the most chronic disease amongst children.

There are many treatments for asthma the disease based on solid medical research, however the felt experience of a child in hospital has perhaps received less attention. Often children being treated for asthma will be asked to patiently endure protracted periods of time in hospital in a tangle of tubes, cords and wires. The issue of how to monitor vital signs unobtrusively is currently being addressed by many in the field of wearable technology. In addition to the benefits of employing wearable technologies in the treatment of asthma in medical contexts is through an increased capacity for self-management. As Daines (2016) states, supported self-management is a key component of asthma care. Asthma management in practice can be a hybrid of various approaches and strategies, pieced together around a core care for a patient and their ability to breathe freely.

The project seeks to understand in what ways the design of wearable tech can support in making asthma management and self-care more straight-forward for caregivers and more enjoyable for children.

Design#

The blanket is comprised of quilted upcycled silk remnants. Armholes are cut and frey-checked on the textile surface using steil-stitch digital embroidery. This makes the blanket a piece which can be handled or worn in various ways, though is primarily envisaged as a vest that drapes like a cape.
The back panel of the garment is embroidered with an RFID tag which monitors and transmits data related to the breathing of the wearer unobtrusively. The blanket will harvest energy from the excursion of the lungs. In addition the blanket incorporates interactive components featuring simple circuits which encourage tactile, sensory play. These simple circuits are located to the left and right hand sides of the blanket such that when the blanket is worn as a vest, the circuits sit where the hands naturally fall/lie.

At this stage it is preferable to leave detailed specifics to emerge from further experimentation and prototyping activities. The design envisages an artefact that connects with the body such as to ascertain specific data related to breathing, however simultaneously will allow for a subjective experience of breathing to be explored and authored.

Supporting Research & Community of Practice#

Relevant Texts

Bianchi, M. ‘A Fabric-Based Approach for Wearable Haptics’ in Scilingo EP & Valenza G(Eds) 2017. Wearable Electronics and Embedded Computing Systems for Biomedical Applications. MDPI Journal: Switzerland.

Dieffenderfer J, Goodell H, Mills S, McKnight M, Yao S, Lin F, Beppler E, Bent B, Lee B, Misra V, Zhu Y, Oralkan O, Strohmaier J, Muth J, Peden D, & Bozkurt A. 2016. ‘Low-Power Wearable Systems for Continuous Monitoring of Environment and Health for Chronic Respiratory Disease’ in IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, Vol 20. No. 5.

Kettley, S. 2006. Designing with Smart Textiles. Bloomsbury: London

Koski, E, Bjorninen, T, Koski K, Ali Babar A. 2012. “Fabrication of embroidered UHF RFID tags” Conference Paper presentated at International Symposium (Digest) (IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society) · July 2012

Haruki, Yutaka., Homma, Ikuo., Umezawa, Akio., & Masaoka, Yuri. (2001). Respiration and Emotion. Tokyo: Springer Japan : Imprint: Springer.

Hui X & Kan EC. ‘Monitoring vital signs over multiplexed radio by near-field coherent sensing’, Nature Electronics Vol. 1 JANUARY 2018, p74–78 http://www.nature.com/natureelectronics

Kwon S, Kim H, Choi S, Jeong EG, Kim D, Lee S, Lee HS, Seo YC, and Choi KC. 2017. Weavable and Highly Efficient Organic Light-Emitting Fibers for Wearable Electronics: A Scalable, Low-Temperature Process. Nano Lett 2018, 18, 347−356. Available at [pubs.acs.org/NanoLett]

Moradi E, Koski K, Ukkonen L, Rahmat-Samii Y, Björninen T & Sydänheimo L. 2013. Embroidered RFID Tags in Body-Centric Communication. International Workshop on Antenna Technology.

Suh, M. 2015. ‘Wearable sensors for athletes’ in Electronic Textiles. Elsevier: Amsterdam.

Wang Z, Volakis JL, Kiourti A. 2015. ‘Embroidered antennas for communication systems’ in Dias, T. 2015. Electronic Textiles. Elsevier: Amsterdam

Waqar S, Wang L, John S. 2015. ’Piezoelectric energy harvesting from intelligent textiles’ in Dias, T. 2015. Electronic Textiles. Elsevier: Amsterdam

Yu F, Lyon KG, Kan EC. 2010. Harmonic Generation from Integrated Nonlinear Transmission Lines for RFID Applications. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Cornell University: NY