Beads Beats explores how the craft of bead embroidery can be used for capacitive sensing.

As one of the earliest forms of fabric decoration, found separately in cultures across the world, beading provides a rich history of techniques and materials that fit well with creating interactive textiles. Sensitive to touch and pressure, capacitive sensing allows for a range of input, that can then be used for a variety of applications. In this project, we wish to create an artefact not unlike a musical instrument, used to drive sound. Along the process we are documenting findings for both the types of interaction we are researching, as well as the material and construction specifications.

Beads Beats is a joint project by student assistants Zora Kutz and Stratos Bichakis. It is supported by the ECDF Wearable Computing grant.