Hand-Made Embroidered Electromyography

Some of you will know that I have had a long standing relationship with CoRE, Centre for Robotics Research at Kings College London.  Last year I was involved in an EPSRC GCRF project to investigate the potential of hand sewn e-textile muscle sensors as a reusable and lower cost alternative to mass produced sensors.

I am very pleased to announce that thanks to Samuel Pitou and Matthew Howard’s hard work, a paper on this project has just been published in the MDPI Journal Sensors.  You can read about it here https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/12/3347

I ran a series of workshops with the women’s group Shelanu in Birmingham and at the Science Gallery in London to help  test this hypothesis.  Participants were asked to sew and test a given number of sensors and these were then laboratory tested later.

So this is the technical jargon bit…..When you move a muscle in your body electrical impulses, electromyopthy, can be measured on the surface of the skin (sEMG).  This research project was to compare the results for hand embroidered sEMGs alongside machine stitched and mass produced single use stick on sensors.  The rationale was that because they are on a fabric substrate there is potential for laundering and therefore re-use which may be a cheaper and more sustainable.   Because a hand sewn sensor does not need expensive equipment and relies on straight forward sewing techniques there is also the potential for them to be made by Community Interest Companies (CIC) within the populations of the low income countries where they might be used.

Want to know what the point is?  This short film shows embroidered sEMGs picking up electrical impulses on the skin to drive a robotic limb

How do you show a 100m long piece without a 100m long plinth?

You might remember my piece '1 hours production = 1 ½ miles = 15 lengths' that a created for Lesley Millar’s show 'Cloth and Memory 2' at Salts Mill, Saltaire, West Yorkshire.  The piece contains my biometric data recorded whilst running in the Spinning room at the mill as a metaphor for woollen cloth production in the 19^th century.  I made the piece specifically for the space but have been thinking how I could also show you in other venues.  Its 100 m in length and whilst I had the luxury of a plinth that long at Salts Mill I know that is unlikely to be repeated.

So I have been thinking how I could show this piece again in another venue…..one without an enormous plinth!  

This year I will be showing the piece at Festival Of Quilts, NEC, Birmingham 1^st - 4^th August.  We will hang the piece from the ceiling letting it drop from the 15m ceiling and letting it rise again before wrapping it around the stand itself.

Doing the hand sewn hack sessions

The workshop at the Science Gallery London was extremely well attended, indeed oversubscribed with lovely enthusiastic people; a real mix of sewers and those with a keen interest in robotics or e-textiles.  It was quite a challenge for them as we wanted them to stitch sensors using a couching stitch.  It’s a tricky technique where you stitch down a thicker thread with a second thinner thread.  Some really struggled.  One man spent the whole morning really persevering and managed to stitch two sensors.  At the end of the session he pulled me to one side.  He said “Well that was really tough…..”  and I thought ‘Oh dear’ but then he continued “I have such a sense of achievement……I am off for cocktails to celebrate!”

We wont really know how successful the sessions have been until Sam Pitou has spent months testing them off, however what we do know is that initial results show that they are comparable to machine stitched ones.  Positive news.

Digital Weekend at the V&A

I am really excited to be part of the digital weekend at the V&A this Saturday and Sunday.  As part of the Crafts Council Parallel Practice, Wheatstone Innovations Lab and Kings College London team we will be demonstrating what we have been up to.  In my case we will be showcasing the embroidered muscle sensors and the embroidered speakers.  We also hope to have a Pfaff digital embroidery machine stitching out pictures of Kinba, the famous KCL robot receptionist.  I will be working alongside Dr Matthew Howard and some of his students as well as the lovely automata maker John Grayson https://johngraysondesign.wordpress.com/ and fabulous glass artist Shelley James http://www.shelleyjames.co.uk/

If you are in London please come along and see what we are doing as part of this great event http://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/news-learning-department/digital-design-weekend-2016

In conversation at Kings College London

Mathew Howard from the Centre for Robotics Research at Kings College London and I are in conversation as part of the Paths to Utopia Exhibition on Thursday 21^st July in the Great Hall, Strand Campus, Kings College London at 7pm.  We will be talking about this project and the Parallel Practice project that bought us together.  It’s a great opportunity to hear about how the collaboration has developed along with some of the perils and advantages of linking my practice so closely to technology.  I am hoping to have some working samples at the talk so people can see exactly how the technology is working…..or not!

I hope you’ll pop along if you can make it. The event is free but tickets must be booked.  You can do this here

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/paths-to-utopia-in-conversation-all-the-things-you-are-not-yet-tickets-25482489813

You can also watch a stream of the conversation if you cant make it.  It will be available for sometime after the 21^st.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/Cultural/Cultural-Institute/Utopia2016/In-conversation-live-streams.aspx

This project is made possible with the support of The Cultural Institute at King’s College London, premiering as part of Utopia 2016.