The Glove is an interactive accessory featuring nine knitted sensors of conductive yarn (light grey) on its surface. This flexible interface can be worn directly on the body and generates sounds from gestures and finger movements of the wearer.
The interactive Glove is made of a classical gloves cut and combines leather with knitwear, referring to the „Karlsbader Glove“ that features a leather palm and a crochet woolen back of the hand. The combination of leather and knitwear particularly supports the sensors’ effectiveness: As the leather is less elastic than the knitted upper part, it frames the knitted sensor parts and keeps them at their positions. In this way, the more elastic knitted fabric accomplishes the necessary elongation for certain movements which intensifies the sensors’ active mode.
On the back of the Glove, four knitted stretch sensors are located on top of index, middle, ring and little finger to capture their individual movements. Three knitted pressure sensors on the base between these fingers realize if gaps are opened between two fingers. One sensor on the knuckles furthermore reads whether all fingers are spread and another sensor on the wrist measures if the wrist is bent. Together, all nine sensors enable a differentiated interpretation of hand gestures and finger movements.
Via a cable connection which is stabilized through interwoven leather stripes, the sensors are connected from the inside of the glove to a circuit board inside of a bracelet.
The sensitive glove has been designed as part of the EIT ICT activity “Connected Textiles” in 2013, funded by the EIT ICT Labs consortium.
Design Research Lab Berlin
EIT Project Connected Textiles
Project Supervised by Dr. Katharina Bredies
// photos: Nathalie Krüger