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

Singing Quilts:All the things you are not yet

My Singing Quilt, ‘All the things you are not yet’ features a mobile phone photograph of two pre-implantation embryos digitally printed onto cotton.  This fabric has been embroidered with conductive threads to make fabric speakers that play a sound file of those embryos, now 5 years old boys, singing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.’  The soft circuits have been designed that the sound file is triggered when the quilt is touched.  Because the speakers are made from fabric the sound has a faint, ghost like quality and you need to put your head near the quilt to hear it.  This means the experience for the viewer is both interactive and intimate.

This was made with the help of the Centre for Robotics Research, Kings College London.

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.

X marks the spot

Following the re-wire of 'All the things you are not yet (Cloth of Gold)' I thought it might be useful to know where the new speakers are.  The Parkside Gallery at BCU is a noisy space with a high atrium so it can be tricky to hear the quilt unless you are listening in the right place…..so X marks the spot…or rather spots.

The irony is that the speakers are actually even more inconspicuous than the original ones.  Don’t be scared to touch the quilt…that’s the whole point!

STAR conference

I am very excited to have been asked to speak at the first Smart Textiles and Robotics (STAR) workshop at Kings College London, on Friday 10^th February.   The aim of the day is “to create an ongoing forum for discussion, networking and identification of consortiums for collaboration to bring about further advances in the area of smart textiles and robotics.”  The day runs from 9.30-4 and tickets are free but you do need to book them to secure your place.  They have some great speakers lined up who are experts in the fields of informatics, soft robots and e-textiles and you can find out more here https://www.textilerobotics.org/

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As part of this event I am running a textile workshop aimed at hackers, crafters and tinkerers as well as those that want to start investigating smart textiles the afternoon before on Thursday 9^th February.  You do need to be a student at KCL to attend and you can book your free space here

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-textiles-but-were-too-scared-to-ask-tickets-31481020580

If you aren’t a student there is might be worth contacting me directly in case we have spare places that I can offer you.