Wearable touch sensitive garment

Abstract

It is disclosed a wearable touch sensitive garment (100) comprising an array (12) of electronic capacitive sensors integrated into the garment (100), the array (12) of electronic capacitive sensors comprising a plurality of electrodes (E1-E5), each electrode (E1-E5) being individually electrically connected to an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) (30), the ECU (30) being configured to evaluate a parasitic capacitive coupling between each of the electrodes (E1-E5) and a wearer's touch, the ECU (30) being provided with a readable display (35) configured to display an indication representative of a gesture performed on the array (12).

Claims

1. A wearable touch sensitive garment (100) comprising an array (12) of electronic capacitive sensors integrated into the garment (100), the array (12) of electronic capacitive sensors comprising a plurality of electrodes (E1-E5), each electrode (E1-E5) being individually electrically connected to an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) (30), wherein the array (12) is placed over the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) (30) and is connected to said ECU (30) by means of a plurality of signal lines (51-55), each signal line connecting the respective electrode (E1-E5) to the ECU (30), to convey to the ECU (30) a parasitic capacitive coupling signal, the signal lines (51-55), being connected to the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) (30) by means of a flexible bus (25), the flexible bus (25) and the ECU (30) being placed under the sensor array (12), the ECU (30) being configured to evaluate a parasitic capacitive coupling between each of the electrodes (E1-E5) and a wearer's touch, the ECU (30) being connected to a readable display (35) configured to display an indication representative of a gesture performed on the array (12), wherein the array (12) of electronic capacitive sensors (12) is connected to a vibrator (20) configured to provide a tactile feedback to signal a gesture acquisition or an invocation of a decision making algorithm performed by the ECU (30).

2. The touch sensitive garment (100) of claim 1, wherein the array (12) is encapsulated by a wash encapsulant.

3. The touch sensitive garment (100) of claim 1, wherein the array (12) is arranged along a seam of said garment (10).

4. The touch sensitive garment (100) of claim 1, wherein the array (12) is configured as a flexible Printed Circuit Board (PCB) comprising a double sided kapton layer provided with a copper layer or as a digitally printed flexible board provided with conducting ink on PET film or as rigid islands connected to each other by flexible ribbons.

5. The touch sensitive garment (100) of claim 1, wherein the array (12) is resin coated and/or silicon coated.

6. The touch sensitive garment (100) of claim 1, wherein the ECU (30) can be interfaced with a Bluetooth (BT) module or a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) module, to connect wirelessly to a remote system such as a tablet, a smartphone or a phablet.

7. The touch sensitive garment (100) of claim 1, wherein the ECU is integrated into the garment (100).

8. A method of detecting a touch event performed on a wearable touch sensitive garment (100), the method comprising: providing a wearable touch sensitive garment (100); providing an array (12) of electronic capacitive sensors integrated into the garment (100), the array (12) of electronic capacitive sensors comprising a plurality of electrodes (E1-E5), evaluating capacitance variations provided by the plurality of electrodes (E1-E5); determining a touch event performed on the touch sensitive garment (100) as a function of capacitance variations provided by the plurality of electrodes (E1-E5); activating a vibrator (20) associated with the touch sensitive garment (100) and configured to provide a tactile feedback to signal a gesture acquisition or an invocation of a decision making algorithm performed by the ECU (30).

9. A computer-implemented data structure codifying a gesture performed on a wearable touch sensitive garment (100), the wearable touch sensitive garment (100) comprising an array (12) of electronic capacitive sensors integrated into the garment (100), the array (12) of electronic capacitive sensors comprising a plurality of electrodes (E1-E5), the data structure comprising raw touch data generated by the plurality of electrodes (E1-E5), during a predefined interval of time in which a gesture event is performed on the wearable touch sensitive garment (100), the data structure being suitable to be interpreted by an electronic control unit (30) according to the method of claim 8.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will be discussed more in detail with reference to the enclosed drawings, given by way of non-limiting example, wherein:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a plane view of a front portion of an embodiment of the invention;

(3) FIG. 2 shows a plane view of a back portion of an embodiment of the invention of FIG. 1;

(4) FIG. 3 shows a garment according to an embodiment of the invention;

(5) FIG. 4 shows a schematic view of an embodiment of the invention; and

(6) FIG. 5 shows a graph that exemplifies a possible mode of operation of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(7) Exemplary embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the enclosed drawings without intent to limit application and uses.

(8) The invention will now be described with initial reference to FIG. 1 wherein a plane view of a front portion of an embodiment of the invention is shown.

(9) In particular, FIG. 1 represents an array 12 of electronic capacitive sensors that can be integrated into a garment 100, the array 12 of electronic capacitive sensors comprising a plurality of electrodes E1-E5 and an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) (30), the ECU 30 being provided with a readable display 35 configured to display an indication representative of a gesture performed on the array 12.

(10) The electrodes E1-E5 of the array 12 are individually electrically connected to an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) 30 to form a system 10 that operates as touch sensitive garment reduced human interface (RHI).

(11) The ECU 30 is provided with a readable display 35 configured to display an indication representative of a gesture performed on the array 12.

(12) Furthermore, the array 12 of electronic capacitive sensors can be connected to a vibrator 20 configured to provide a tactile feedback to a user of the touch sensitive garment when a gesture performed on the array 12 is detected.

(13) The system 10 can comprise therefore a flexible touch sensitive 1D or 2D array 12 of electrodes that can be used monitor gestures.

(14) The array 12 can be encapsulated by a wash-fast encapsulant to resist laundry operations performed on the garment 100.

(15) FIG. 2 shows a plane view of a back portion of an embodiment of the invention of FIG. 1, wherein in particular, in FIG. 2 power lines 42, 44 have been schematically indicated as well as signal lines 51-55 have been schematically indicated, each signal line 51-55 connecting the respective electrode E1-E5 to the ECU 30.

(16) The array 12 of electrodes E1-E5 can be connected to the Electronic Control Unit 30 via a flexible bus 25 to carry power and data to and from the flexible touch sensitive 1D or 2D array 12. Such an embodiment is disclosed in FIG. 4.

(17) According to an aspect of the present invention, the ECU 30 is configured to evaluate parasitic capacitive coupling by detecting an increase (or variation) of a capacitance value of the capacitive electrode.

(18) Such parasitic capacitive coupling can be generated, for example, by means of a gesture or touch by the garment 100 wearer.

(19) Nevertheless, it must be noted that in alternative embodiment of the invention the sensor array 12 can also be placed over the front-end electronics, an embodiment that saves space and battery power.

(20) In particular, the bus and the garment computer can all be placed under the sensors array in the final product as depicted for example in FIG. 3 which shows a garment according to this alternative embodiment of the invention.

(21) The advantage of eliminating the bus in this embodiment can be summarized by the fact that a bus to carry the signals from the sensing elements to the electronics may lead to issues not yet completely solved because properly routing of capacitive signals requires tedious and non-sensitized paths which are expensive.

(22) The elimination of the bus does not therefore create the issue of routing capacitive signals, but on the contrary has the effect of eliminating such issue.

(23) The system 10 can further comprise a Bluetooth (BT) module or, alternatively, a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) module, to connect wirelessly the system 10 to a remote system such as a tablet, a smartphone or a phablet.

(24) Gestures performed on the wearable touch sensitive garment 100 can therefore be used to control or operate on such remote systems.

(25) The sensor array 12 can be made with a flexible Printed Circuit Board (PCB) such as but not limited to double sided kapton with copper layer or digitally printed flexible boards with conducting ink on PET film or rigid islands connected to each other by flexible ribbons or alike in order to form the sensor array 12.

(26) In general, the invention provides a reduced version of a human interface (RHI) that can be integrated into a seam of a garment, for example to detect one-dimensional gesture events such as i) tap-only, ii) swipe-up, and iii) swipe-down.

(27) With the word “seam” a side seam of a jeans or of any trousers or a seam of any garment in general or any portion of a garment that comprises at least two superimposed parts of the garment is intended in the present description.

(28) As a non limitative example, the sensor electronics can be limited to 1.5 cm in width and garment computer to 6×3×1.5 cm.sup.3.

(29) The width of the sensor electronics advantageously allows the same extends along a seam 65 in the garment 100, for example seam 65 of pocket 60 or other seam (FIG. 3).

(30) After populating the array 12 with electrodes E1-E5, the whole circuit is resin coated and then silicon coated.

(31) An alternative embodiment does not have silicon coating. Silicon coated circuit has lower sensitivity with respect to the one without silicon coating.

(32) Every time a decision is made, a tactile feedback is provided via the vibrator 20 which vibrates for a predefined amount of time, for example 50 ms, to signal a gesture acquisition or an invocation of the decision making algorithm.

(33) A minimum of two or three sensor electrodes are needed or are enough for implementing the functionalities of the present invention, however, to obtain precision and robustness, some redundancy is considered to be needed, hence the embodiment described herein has 5 sensors, namely electrodes E1-E5.

(34) Operation of the system is reliable and the decisions are almost 100% correct. The algorithm suppresses non-intentional taps as well.

(35) FIG. 5 shows a graph that exemplifies a possible mode of operation of the invention. In particular, in FIG. 5, raw data produced by the sensor array 12, showing intentional “down” and “up” swipe gestures as well as non-intentional touch instances are represented.

(36) Non-intentional touch instances or noise depicted can be successfully suppressed without affecting the correctness of the decision making algorithm in identifying the intentional “down” and “up” swipe gestures.

(37) A corresponding indication may be displayed on the display 35.

(38) While at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the foregoing summary and detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist. It should also be appreciated that the exemplary embodiment or exemplary embodiments are only examples, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration in any way. Rather, the foregoing summary and detailed description will provide those skilled in the art with a convenient road map for implementing at least one exemplary embodiment, it being understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements described in an exemplary embodiment without departing from the scope as set forth in the appended claims and their legal equivalents.