We’re always on the look out for enhanced textiles, textiles with added functionality, in short: Smart Textiles.
The Music Textile created by Maurin Donneaud (Industrial designer) and Vincent Roudaut (Interaction designer) is a highly interesting concept.
The Musical textile is a large tactile interface for playing electronic music. The performer plays it simply by moving his / her hand over it. The XY position where the hand contacts the music textile is transmitted to a computer. The current demonstrator allows a resolution of 4000 by 4000 points.
How does it work?
Two conductive fabrics are fixed on a frame, each one weaved with conductive threads in a different direction. When the performer presses any point of this textile, the two fabrics connect and the current electrical value is sent to the computer. It’s based on a voltage divider resistive principle.
Maurin developed this project at the National School of Industrial Creation (ENSCI) Paris, France, for his diploma in December 2005. Since then, he specializes himself in the creation of innovative electronic textiles and he continues the development of the music textile. Many more photos about the creation of the music textile can be found on Maurin’s flickr album.
We can imagine a wide range of application for this concept like wall decoration that allows you to create your own musical enjoyment, table cloth for interactive acoustical games,
Why this concept is interesting?
It’s a simple system, has great flexibility, is light in weight, has a nice soft tactile feeling, large surface of interaction, potential low cost and last but not least: can be wrapped around existing objects of various forms and shapes.
The Musical textile will be exhibited between April 16 to 21 during Malaupixel in Paris. If you are around or in Paris at that time you should have a look at it (and give us your impressions in the comments, would you please?).
