Openwear Openwear – Meafaigaluega mo le Faia o Ata Muamua o Mea Faaofuofu e Fesootai by Leijing Zhou

Openwear Openwear – Meafaigaluega mo le Faia o Ata Muamua o Mea Faaofuofu e Fesootai by Leijing Zhou is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2024 A' Design Award Uʻamea in Mamanu Inisinia Competition Category.

UʻameaInisinia· 2024

Openwear Openwear – Meafaigaluega mo le Faia o Ata Muamua o Mea Faaofuofu e Fesootai

by Leijing Zhou

Client: Zhejiang University

A' Design Award Uʻamea Winner in Inisinia Category

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Verified Award Winner

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View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Openwear Openwear – Meafaigaluega mo le Faia o Ata Muamua o Mea Faaofuofu e Fesootai

Openwear o se meafaigaluega mo le vave fausiaina o ata muamua (prototypes) o mea eletonika e ofuina. O le meafaigaluega e aofia ai se laupapa atinae Lilypad USB ua suia, sefulutasi (11) potu fou ua mamanuina ma uaea fesootai vave. O potu taitasi e iai se saga (chip) mo mea e ulufale pe alu ese, ma e ono (6) pine e 3 mm le lautele. O maneta e 10 mm le lautele e faapipiiina i tua o laupapa, ina ia mafai e vaega ona pipii i luga o ofu e ala i pusi maneta nai lo le suisui. O sootaga O ma polo e fesootai ai pine. E mafai ona fausia, suega ma toe faatulaga ata muamua i luga tonu lava o ie.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award Uʻamea

O le A' Design Award Uʻamea na manumalo ai Openwear Openwear – Meafaigaluega mo le Faia o Ata Muamua o Mea Faaofuofu e Fesootai, o se faamaoniga mamalu e tuuina atu i mamanu lelei e faataunuu ai manaʻoga faapolofesa ma pisinisi e faamoemoeina mai galuega ua mamanuina lelei. O ē manumalo i le Uʻamea e faaalia ai le tomai tele, le faapitoa maualuga, le malamalama o tagata poto ma le mafai fatufatuaʻi o ē na faia. E faamoemoeina Openwear Openwear – Meafaigaluega mo le Faia o Ata Muamua o Mea Faaofuofu e Fesootai e avea ma mea ua matuā vivii, mataʻina ma pelepelea e aogā ma fou. O lenei mamanu na manumalo i le A' Design Award Uʻamea e tuufaatasia ai faiga sili o le pisinisi ma e iai uiga faatekonolosi mafai ua fesoʻotaʻi ma le poto ma le taleni. Ona o lona faatuatuaina, e tatau ai Openwear Openwear – Meafaigaluega mo le Faia o Ata Muamua o Mea Faaofuofu e Fesootai ona faaaloalogia ma ua mamanuina e tuuina mai ai faaleleiga o le olaga e fesoasoani e faia ai e le lalolagi se nofoaga e sili atu ona lelei.

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