Openwear Toolkit Prototyping Wearable by Leijing Zhou

Openwear Toolkit Prototyping Wearable by Leijing Zhou is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2024 A' Design Award Wesi in Desain Rekayasa Produk lan Teknis Competition Category.

WesiRekayasa· 2024

Openwear Toolkit Prototyping Wearable

by Leijing Zhou

Client: Zhejiang University

A' Design Award Wesi Winner in Rekayasa Category

53,077

Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #159003

View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Openwear Toolkit Prototyping Wearable

Openwear iku toolkit kanggo mbangun prototipe elektronik wearable kanthi cepet. Toolkit iki kalebu papan pangembangan Lilypad USB sing wis dimodifikasi, sewelas modul anyar sing dirancang khusus, lan kabel sambungan cepet. Saben modul nggawa chip input utawa output lan enem pin kanthi diameter 3 mm. Magnet kanthi diameter 10 mm dipasang ing mburi papan, saengga bagean-bagean kasebut nemplek ing sandhangan liwat bantalan magnetik tinimbang dijahit. Konektor-O lan baut nyambungake pin-pin kasebut. Prototipe bisa dibangun, dites, lan diatur ulang langsung ing kain.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award Wesi

Openwear Toolkit Prototyping Wearable menang A' Design Award Wesi, pangenalan sing prestisius sing diparingake marang desain sing apik sing nyukupi kabutuhan profesional lan industri sing dikarepake saka ciptaan sing dirancang kanthi apik. Pemenang Wesi nuduhake katrampilan sing gedhe, spesialisasi sing dhuwur, pangerten ahli lan kapasitas kreatif para penciptane. Openwear Toolkit Prototyping Wearable dikarepake dadi ciptaan sing dihargai banget, dikagumi lan ditresnani sing praktis lan inovatif. Desain sing menang A' Design Award Wesi iki nggabungake praktik industri sing paling apik lan nduweni ciri teknis sing kompeten sing disambung karo kawruh lan bakat. Openwear Toolkit Prototyping Wearable diajeni amarga ketelitiane lan dirancang kanggo nyedhiyakake paningkatan kualitas urip sing mbiyantu ndadekake donya panggonan sing luwih apik.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

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

Unique Properties: Openwear is a toolkit for building rapid wearable prototypes. It includes a modified Lilypad USB development board, 11 newly designed modules, and quick connecting cables. This kit facilitates rapid prototyping by enabling quick attachment and connection and allows users to directly build and test prototypes on the intended substrate like clothes.
Dimensions & Packaging: Development board size is ϕ50*1mm, module size is ϕ25*1mm.
Tags: Hardware, Electronic, Toolkit, Wearable, E-textile
Production Technology: For the modules, we have designed 11 different modules with input or output chips contained on each module. Each module has six 3mm diameter pins. For quick fixing, we fixed a 10mm diameter magnet on the bottom of the development board and modules, which works with the magnetic fixing pads to attach to clothes. For quick connects, we used O-connectors and bolts, which work well with the 3mm pin sizes on the PCB.
Design Challenge: The biggest challenge in the whole research was to achieve a rapid fixing and connection of the PCB. We tried a variety of methods including pins, buttons, velcro, and finally we chose to use magnets with O-connectors, which had not been used before.
Research: The success of the LilyPad has resulted in the creation of various development boards, such as the more compact TinyLily and the Circuit Playground with many sensors. However, these variations only modify the dimensions or integrate sensors, without modifying the Lilypad's method for constructing wearable circuits. This method presents a challenge in prototyping wearable circuits: sewing processes are time-consuming and set a high threshold for beginners. Furthermore, the troubleshooting process in wearable circuit prototyping often requires resetting and resewing. Once the development board is integrated into the fabric, the complexity of the debugging code also increases proportionally.
Inspiration: Common wearable circuits often need to be fixed using sewing, which is very cumbersome. To solve this problem, we took inspiration from magnetic buttons. We have embedded magnets in the back of the PCB to fix it using magnetic force.
Project Duration: The project started in August 2023 in Ningbo and finished in January 2024
Operation Flow: 1. Building the First Circuit Prototype: Select modules based on design requirements and assemble them on a flat surface for initial circuit testing and debugging. 2. Continuous Testing and Adjustment of the Circuit: Reconfigure module positions on the body for testing purposes. 3. Building the Final Circuit: Sew components directly onto fabric using conductive yarn or utilize sewing magnet fixing pads as an alternative method. This ensures flexibility and ease of removal.
Team Members: Leijing Zhou
Xin An
Yiqing Zhang
Yang Mao