Plex: Finger-Worn Textile Sensor for Mobile Interaction during Activities

by | Sep 15, 2014

Authors: Sang Ho Yoon, Ke Huo, Karthik Ramani
In Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing: Adjunct Publication (Ubicomp'14 Adjunct), Seattle, USA, 2014.

Abstract: We present Plex, a finger-worn textile sensor for eyes-free mobile interaction during daily activities. Although existing products like a data glove possess multiple sensing capabilities, they are not designed for environments where body and finger motion are dynamic. Usually an interaction with fingers couples bending and pressing. In Plex, we separate bending and pressing by placing each sensing element in discrete faces of a finger. Our proposed simple and low-cost fabrication process using conductive elastomers and threads transforms an elastic fabric into a finger-worn interaction tool. Plex preserves an inter-finger natural tactile feedback and proprioception. We also explore the interaction design and implement applications allowing users to interact with existing mobile and wearable devices using Plex.

Plex

Sang Ho Yoon

Sang Ho Yoon

Sang Ho Yoon is currently working at Microsoft, Seattle, WA. He received his PhD at Purdue University and his B.S & M.S degrees from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008 with major in Mechanical Engineering and minor in Robotics. He worked at Research Department in LG Display & LG Electronics for 5 years. There, he involved in product development for consumer electronics as well as the futuristic products including 'Transparent & Public Display', 'Assistive/Rehabilitation Robot', and 'Smart Car User Interface'. He is particularly interested in applying novel sensing techniques to bring the new forms of input metaphor for Human-computer interaction. Areas of interest include wearable/tangible interface, sensing techniques & fabrication, and novel input device. Currently, his research aims at combining the state-of-art machine learning approaches with novel sensing technique to better support natural human-computer interaction. [Personal Website][LinkedIn]