Spring 2023
Academic:
MIT Computing Fabrics
Collaborator Sailin Zhong
Awards & Publication- DIS’23 Conference
#Affective Device
#Machine Knitting
#Connectedness with Nature
#Wearables
#Soft robot
#Embodied Experience
NugiTex
NugiTex is a line of interactive, afective wearable garments that convey the embodied experience of plants us- ing device-initiated haptic cues. The haptic cuesrefect a plant’s“comfort”level based on proximal environmental conditions, aiming to increase awareness and induce feelings of closeness, symbiosis, and empathy with the user’s natural environment. Variationsin temperature and humidity in a room are then interpreted and translated into three types of haptic cues - shrinking, hard pushing, and mild pushing -each a metaphorical representation of the plant’s condition. Users are given these real-time haptic cues through FlowIO, a pneumatic platform for controlling the airfow and pressure of soft devices. We predict that the increase in awareness of natural entities through interactive embodied experiences will pro- mote the Inclusion of Nature in Self (INS), and encourage pro-environmental behaviors.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b99648f4563b650ed11ff464e7ed44ac0dad00e12c9a2cb9a33e1fa428192c07/fRWi504-_200x200.png)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/658fbeec19ee62568ad2246012c5cdbebf0a8dd9e5513a8b0c8f14687f442a53/Screenshot-2023-12-28-at-5.05.24-PM.png)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dcf2df545662ab2a86930d00f49d7b1dd5f188cb91dfa187c1caaf3c2709db49/Screenshot-2023-12-28-at-5.05.18-PM.png)
Design
Composed of infatable silicone and non-elastic textile layers, NugiTex responds to
nearby atmospheric conditions such as temperature and humidity levels, which are measured in real-time by
AirSpec, smart eyeglasses fitted with sensorsto collect environmental data.
Fabrication
(a) NugiTex consists of two layers of knitted textile and a silicone layer (b) A single-bed knitting machine is used to fabricate textile layers
of two wearable garments: an arm warmer and a neck warmer. (c) By transferring stitches to an adjacent needle using a single-eye transfer tool, six lace holes (eyelets) on a neck warmer are designed to simulate both gentle and hard haptic pushes from elastomers patterned with six 30 mm-di- ameter circles. Transferring the bottom purls to stitches creates a tubular-shaped space to insert an elastomer for shrinking behavior when actuated
Applications
We allowed visitors to either wear or touch the garment laying on a table. For our final demonstration, the interaction with the haptic
wearables will be set up in the form of an art installation capable of accommodating two participants at once.![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cc0678e82fdcb6af7e20cf1f5ef0a0470ddb3928119aef73b5df2148d47077ff/Screenshot-2023-12-28-at-5.05.29-PM.png)
Fabrication
(a) NugiTex consists of two layers of knitted textile and a silicone layer (b) A single-bed knitting machine is used to fabricate textile layers
of two wearable garments: an arm warmer and a neck warmer. (c) By transferring stitches to an adjacent needle using a single-eye transfer tool, six lace holes (eyelets) on a neck warmer are designed to simulate both gentle and hard haptic pushes from elastomers patterned with six 30 mm-di- ameter circles. Transferring the bottom purls to stitches creates a tubular-shaped space to insert an elastomer for shrinking behavior when actuated
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f32d280c43f53f056fd3890ab05ec37d4f622bfcb8ec9f28670c420eb2155cbd/Screenshot-2023-12-28-at-5.05.40-PM.png)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d980369daf37805f42f45de93d2bc9f7d7ce40003f29e2b01907fb253cde5d5e/Screenshot-2023-12-28-at-5.06.15-PM.png)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8d227a9bde15777dead4155926ebd36a1eb59216a6e8dbe10befc0c70282a821/Screenshot-2023-12-28-at-5.06.11-PM.png)
Applications
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/243f91417e2197eda91eab5e1cf5fafb2881cbde3fd522226f2f036e2e18f33d/Screenshot-2023-12-28-at-5.06.07-PM.png)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/289e5b02714c66e9e82cb3df27ea5e5df8a1546d9c5e1c45b8f1bf6d9d949f15/Screenshot-2023-12-28-at-5.06.21-PM.png)