OmniFiber Selbstsensierendes formveränderndes Textil by Ozgun Kilic Afsar

OmniFiber Selbstsensierendes formveränderndes Textil by Ozgun Kilic Afsar is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 A' Design Award in Bronze in Textildesign Competition Category.

BronzeTextil· 2022

OmniFiber Selbstsensierendes formveränderndes Textil

by Ozgun Kilic Afsar

Client: Ozgun Kilic Afsar

A' Design Award in Bronze Winner in Textil Category

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The Design

About OmniFiber Selbstsensierendes formveränderndes Textil

OmniFiber ist eine mikrofluidische Fasertechnologie für robotische Textilien und Kleidungsstücke. Die Faser nimmt ihre eigene Verformung wahr und reagiert mechanisch darauf. OmniFiber kontrahiert, dehnt sich, biegt und windet sich – mit unmittelbarer Reaktion, hohem Kontraktionsverhältnis und hoher Kraftabgabe. Eine einzelne Faser kann mit einem Durchmesser von nur 500 Mikrometern bis zu 2 Millimetern gefertigt und zu Stoff gestrickt oder gewebt werden. Ein tragbares Steuermodul variiert Luftdruck und Durchflussrate, um die Bewegung zu programmieren. Zu den Anwendungen zählen kinästhetische Wearables, dynamisch anpassbare Kleidungsstücke und textilbasierte haptische Geräte.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award in Bronze

OmniFiber Selbstsensierendes formveränderndes Textil ist Gewinner des A' Design Award in Bronze, einer hochprestigeträchtigen Anerkennung für herausragende Designs, die sich durch Kreativität, Einfallsreichtum und Scharfsinn auszeichnen. Bronze-Gewinner sind reichlich geschickte und auffallend kreative Artefakte, die die große Erfahrung, Fantasie und Findigkeit ihrer Designer belegen. Von OmniFiber Selbstsensierendes formveränderndes Textil wird erwartet, dass es ein hochgeschätztes, bewundertes und geliebtes Objekt ist, das bemerkenswert professionell und innovativ ist. Dieses mit dem A' Design Award in Bronze prämierte Design verkörpert bewährte Verfahren in Kunst, Wissenschaft, Design und Technologie und ist hervorragend in seiner Liebe zum Detail. OmniFiber Selbstsensierendes formveränderndes Textil befriedigt Bedürfnisse auf großartige Weise, berührt Wünsche, bezaubert Gefühle und spricht die Neugier an.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: OmniFiber is a high-pressure microfluidic fiber technology for robotic textiles and garments. The fiber is engineered to sense its own physical deformation and mechanically respond to it. OmniFiber has versatile morphing behavior such as contracting, extending, bending and coiling with immediate response, high contraction ratio and high force output. This allows a myriad of applications including kinesthetic wearables for skill learning and transfer, dynamic fitting garments, and textile-based haptic devices for telepresence applications.
Dimensions & Packaging: A single OmniFiber device can be as thin as 500 microns and as large as 2 millimeters in diameter. They can be fabricated theoretically at infinite lengths, although we have so far achieved a continuous fabrication of a 60 meters-long fiber spool.
A single contractible fiber of 1.8 mm diameter exhibits forces up to 19 Newtons, demonstrating high speeds of linear actuation with as little as 5 milliseconds response time for full-state morphing.
Tags: Interaction Design, Materials Research, Human-Textile Interaction, Morphing User Interfaces, Haptic Devices, Soft Sensors and Actuators, Microfluidics, Intelligent Textiles, Fibers
Production Technology: This work demonstrates that microfluidic actuation with reinforced tubular elastomers can be leveraged for fluidic morphing matter that acts as a fiber in a fabric assembly. The technology is designed for closed loop Human Textile Interaction by applying localized sensor nodes on the fiber body. A mechanical programming pipeline is developed for versatile morphing states by adding on-demand mechanical constraints. With various assemblies made of OmniFibers, in-fabric haptic feedback is achieved including high frequency oscillations, lateral skin stretch, and compression.
Design Challenge: Recently, there have been remarkable advancements that yield a myriad of engineered fibers, however prior work has often focused on achieving either sensing or actuation, but seldom both. Readily employed fibers such as shape memory alloys have limitations that hinder their integration to everyday interactions. These are high cost, slow response, small forces, arduous training, and risk of burning the skin. To overcome these challenges, we established a fiber technology that uses off-the-shelf materials, is scalable, machine-knittable, safe to wear, and has immediate response.
Research: Advances in materials science invite visions of a world where people interact with machines through garments. OmniFiber presents a novel textile technology where actuated fibers are used to make self-sensing robotic fabrics. The fabrication and comprehensive system design provide designers with an accessible way to knit and weave fluidic morphing swatches. OmniFiber operates with low power, high bandwidth and is strong enough to lift kilograms of weight, making it an ideal technology for kinesthetic wearables such as respiratory regulation-wear, soft exoskeletons for dance pedagogy, and peristaltic compression garments.
Inspiration: Textiles are vital to our survival across scales, from medical textiles that repair our organs to blankets that provide warmth and protection. Although the development of textiles is intertwined with that of human progress, they are still valued as static and disposable goods. Advanced fibers have the potential to create a whole new industry where textiles can sense surroundings; store energy; and communicate in a single package. This will increase the value of textiles to society, transforming them from something we buy, use and throw away, to a platform for experiences and services.
Project Duration: Started in April 2020 at MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, Massachusetts and ended in November 2021. The work has been presented and demonstrated at the ACM User Interface Software and Technology Symposium in October 2021.
Operation Flow: The system design consists of a fiber based interface and a wearable pneumatic control module that together convert energy from a compressed fluid medium to mechanical motion. The fiber behavior is programmed by miniaturized valves in the control module that vary air pressure and flow rate, operated through a graphical interface. The users can interact with OmniFiber based devices leveraging the closed loop strain control functionality for real time, and record-playback interactions, or alternatively design morphing behavior using the event scheduler on the graphical interface.
Patents: Provisional Patent. Patent No. 63/276895. Joint, Media Laboratory. 2021.

https://patents.media.mit.edu/23866TJ
Team Members: Ozgun Kilic Afsar
Ali Shtarbanov
Hiroshi Ishii
Image Credits: All Photo credits to Ozgun Kilic Afsar, 2021.
All Video credits to MIT, 2021.