Scott M. Gilliland

Don't mind me touching my wrist: a case study of interacting with on-body technology in public

Wearable technology, specifically e-textiles, offers the potential for interacting with electronic devices in a whole new manner. However, some may find the operation of a system that employs non-traditional on-body interactions uncomfortable to perform in a public setting, impacting how readily a new form of mobile technology may be received. Thus, it is important for interaction designers to take into consideration the implications of on-body gesture interactions when designing wearable interfaces. In this study, we explore the third-party perceptions of a users interactions with a wearable e-textile interface. This two-prong evaluation examines the societal perceptions of a user interacting with the textile interface at different on-body locations, as well as the observers attitudes toward on-body controller placement. We performed the study in the United States and South Korea to gain cultural insights into the perceptions of on-body technology usage.

A comparison of order picking assisted by head-up display (HUD), cart-mounted display (CMD), light, and paper pick list

Wearable and contextually aware technologies have great applicability in task guidance systems. Order picking is the task of collecting items from inventory in a warehouse and sorting them for distribution; this process accounts for about 60% of the total operational costs of these warehouses. Current practice in industry includes paper pick lists and pick-by-light systems. We evaluated order picking assisted by four approaches: head-up display (HUD); cart-mounted display (CMD); pick-by-light; and paper pick list. We report accuracy, error types, task time, subjective task load and user preferences for all four approaches. The findings suggest that pick-by-HUD and pick-by-CMD are superior on all metrics to the current practices of pick-by-paper and pick-by-light.

FIDO--Facilitating interactions for dogs with occupations: wearable communication interfaces for working dogs

Abstract Working dogs have improved the lives of thousands of people throughout history. However, communication between human and canine partners is currently limited. The main goal of the FIDO project is to research fundamental aspects of wearable technologies to support communication between working dogs and their handlers. In this study, the FIDO team investigated on-body interfaces for dogs in the form of wearable technology integrated into assistance dog vests. We created five different sensors that dogs could activate based on natural dog behaviors such as biting, tugging, and nose touches. We then tested the sensors on-body with eight dogs previously trained for a variety of occupations and compared their effectiveness in several dimensions. We were able to demonstrate that it is possible to create wearable sensors that dogs can reliably activate on command, and to determine cognitive and physical factors that affect dogs’ success with body–worn interaction technology.

The Textile Interface Swatchbook: Creating graphical user interface-like widgets with conductive embroidery

The Textile Interface Swatchbook demonstrates how conductive embroidery can render graphical user interface-like (GUI) widgets on fabric. Such widgets might be used to control mobile electronics such as a music player, mobile phone, or projected display. At present, six swatches have been created for the swatchbook: pleat, menu, rocker, multi-touch gesture, zipper, and proximity. The three most diverse and original are discussed here. In addition, we develop a hybrid resistive-capacitive touch sensing technique designed to be more tolerant to the flexing typical of fabric. We hope to develop the Textile Interface Swatchbook into a reference tool for textile interfaces.

Is It Gropable? Assessing the Impact of Mobility on Textile Interfaces

In a mobile environment, the visual attention a person can devote to a computer is often limited. In such situations, a manual interface should be “gropable,” that is, the user should be able to access and use the interface with little to no visual attention. We compare stationary and mobile input on two embroidered textile interfaces; a single touch three button interface and a multitouch four button interface that is activated by pressing two buttons at the same time. Sixteen participants completed 480 trials while walking a path and sitting. While multitouch increases the expressiveness of gestures that can be performed, our user study only shows a slight, not statistically signi¿cant, increase in accuracy and an understandable decrease in speed for simple selection tasks.

The social comfort of wearable technology and gestural interaction.

The “wearability” of wearable technology addresses the factors that affect the degree of comfort the wearer experiences while wearing a device, including physical, psychological, and social aspects. While the physical and psychological aspects of wearing technology have been investigated since early in the development of the field of wearable computing, the social aspects of wearability have been less fully-explored. As wearable technology becomes increasingly common on the commercial market, social wearability is becoming an ever-more-important variable contributing to the success or failure of new products. Here we present an analysis of social aspects of wearability within the context of the greater understanding of wearability in wearable technology, and focus on selected theoretical frameworks for understanding how wearable products are perceived and evaluated in a social context. Qualitative results from a study of social acceptability of on-body interactions are presented as a case study of social wearability.

Textile Interfaces: Embroidered Jog-Wheel, Beaded Tilt Sensor, Twisted Pair Ribbon, and Sound Sequins

Electronic textiles (or e-textiles) attempt to integrate electronics and computing into fabric. In our efforts to create new e-textile interfaces and construction techniques for our Electronic Textile Interface Swatch Book (an e-textile toolkit), we have created a multi-use jog wheel using multilayer embroidery, sound sequins from PVDF film and a tilt sensor using a hanging bead, embroidery and capacitive sensing. In order to make capacitive sensing over long leads possible on the body, we have constructed twisted pair ribbon and demonstrated its effectiveness over more typical sensing techniques. We detail construction techniques and lessons learned from this technology exploration.

Order Picking with Head-Up Displays

Experiments suggest that using head-up displays like Google Glass to support parts picking for distribution results in fewer errors than current processes. Making Glass opaque instead of transparent further improves selection efficiency. The Web extra at http://youtu.be/yUZFaCP6rP4 is a video demonstrating that order picking assisted by head-up display (HUD) is faster, has fewer errors, requires less workload, and is preferred to order picking assisted by pick-by-light, paper pick list, and cart-mounted display (CMD). The second Web extra at http://youtu.be/RApBJ0U3XpI is a video demonstrating that order picking assisted by a Google Glass with an opaque display is three percent faster than with a transparent display (default).

Two-Way Communication between Working Dogs and Their Handlers

The Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations (FIDO) project in the Animal Interaction Lab at Georgia Tech aims to facilitate communication between working dogs and their handlers. Here, the authors discuss their research on testing a working dogs ability to perform distinct tasks in response to vibrations at different points on their body.

Can i wash it?: the effect of washing conductive materials usedin making textile based wearable electronic interfaces.

We explore the wash-ability of conductive materials used in creating traces and touch sensors in wearable electronic textiles. We perform a wash test measuring change in resistivity after each of 10 cycles of washing for conductive traces constructed using two types of conductive thread, conductive ink, and combinations of thread and ink.