Abstract of MIT Open Course Ware New Textiles.blending electronics and new textiles.

1. Abstract of MIT Open Course Ware
New Textiles
This abstract intends to summarize the contents of the MIT Open Course Ware
New Textiles. The target of this abstract is to decide which materials are
important and which not according to prepare some assignments related with
e-textiles, also known as smart textiles. This course is focused to textile
students with no knowledge in the electronics area.

2. In the main part of the course (Readings, lectures and tutorials) we have been selected the
most important contents and developed them with the course information, but we have had
troubles in major amount of the points due to the lake of information, despite it’s supposed
to be a self-taught course with its part of theory and part of practice.
In the first lessons of the OCW course there is some general information about the course
including an introduction about the smart textiles. There are two different set of slides but
there is no important information inside. However in the 3 rd lesson there is a very important
set of slides that explains the different type of materials (there is a larger list of materials but
they are not mentioned because there is no information about them) as well as an
introduction to many sensors fabricated with textiles. Here is a summary about the slides of
the 3rd lesson.
The first thing important to make smart textiles is to know the properties in the different
textile materials…
Conductive Materials (low resistance)
Conductive fabrics
Stretch conductive fabric - Silver plated Nylon
Soft and Safe shielding fabric – cotton, bamboo, silver
Nickel and copper plated ripstop fabrics
Conductive threads
117/17 2ply silver plated Nylon
234/34 4ply silver plated Nylon
Metal accessories
Beads
Snaps
Fasteners

3. Resistive Materials (high resistance)
Resistive thread
66 Yarn 22+3ply 110 PET
Resistive yarn
Schoeller - Polyester and Inox steel fiber
Anti-static materials
Velostat/Linqstat - Carbon impregnated Polyethylene film
Antistatic foam
Non-Conductive Materials (isolating)
Neoprene
Felt, Foam
Fusible Interfacing –"Iron-on”
Anti-fray, Fabric glue, Nail varnish

4. Once we know these three different types of materials we are ready to use our knowledge
for make sensors. First it’s important to define what a sensor is and which techniques and
tools do we have to make sensors based on textiles.
Conductive thread or yarn
Metal wrapped
• Fabric core wrapped with metal
• Highly conductive
• Beautiful
• Fragile
• Sewability: not machine sewable
Metal plated
• Fabric core plated with metal (usually silver)
• Reasonably conductive
• Plating tarnishes and cracks with washing and wear
• Can be polished
• Sewability: some varieties machine sewable
Spun stainless steel
• 100% stainless steel
• Highly conductive
• Corrosion resistant
• Difficult to work with
• Sewability: Some varieties machines sewable as bobbin thread

5. Sensor (from the free Merriam-Webster dictionary)
Sensor is a device that responds to a physical stimulus as heat, light, sound, pressure,
magnetism, or a particular motion and transmits a resulting impulse as for measurement or
operating a control. Definition
The Tools and Techniques for making sensors based on textiles are the following
• Sewing
• Knitting
• Crochet
• Felting
• Circular knitting machine
• Spool knitter
• Needle felting tools
• Hole maker
• Iron
• Multimeter
• LilyPad Arduino
• Battery and holder, LEDs

6. The next step in the New-Textiles course is to show various sensors made with textile, as we
will see these sensors are easy to make and are able to join DIY (do it yourself) devices.
Diy from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Do it yourself (or DIY) is a term used to describe building, modifying, or repairing of
something without the aid of experts or professionals.
Fabric Sensors
•Fabric Button
• Conductive Thread Pressure Sensor
• Neoprene Bend Sensor
• Pressure Sensor Matrix
• Fabric Tilt Sensor
• Fabric Potentiometer
• Crochet Potentiometer
• Stroke Sensor
• Knit Stretch Sensors
• Knit Touchpad
As this document is just an abstract of the OCW course, we will look the most important
sensors, leaving the reader to fill in much of the details entering into the 3rd lesson slides
from the original course.

7. We have chosen as the most significant sensors, the fabric button, the pressure sensor
matrix, the fabric potentiometer the stroke sensor and the knit stretch sensor.
Fabric Button
MATERIALS
• Neoprene • Fusible interfacing
• Stretch conductive fabric • Foam

8. Pressure Sensor Matrix
MATERIALS
• Neoprene • Conductive thread
• Stretch conductive fabric • Fusible interfacing
• Velostat

9. Fabric Potentiometer
MATERIALS
• Neoprene • Conductive thread
• Stretch conductive fabric • Resistive fabric
• Fusible interfacing

10. Stroke Sensor
MATERIALS
• Neoprene • Conductive thread
• Resistive thread • Conductive fabric
• Fusible interfacing

11. Knit Stretch Sensor
MATERIALS
• Resistive yarn • Regular yarn

12. Showed sensors are the most significant sensors of the slides, but in the course they also
recommend to visit some web pages with many more sensors. One of the best websites is
How to get what you want (http://www.kobakant.at/DIY) where you can find different type
of sensors but also actuators, connectors and much more devices that are required in an
electronic circuit. It has also information about conductive and non-conductive materials
specifying prices, the minimum order and much more.

13. Finally we present the Syllabus of the course just to note which topics were treated. Most of
them are guest lectures and there are also some tutorials and YouTube videos, but no one of
them are interesting for our purpose, that is why we only list them instead of develop its
content.
Lectures and readings syllabus
1. Introduction
- Materials: conductive fabrics, conductive threads and yarns
- Techniques: hand sewing, switch design
2. Conductive textiles
- Materials: conductive fabrics, conductive threads and yarns, LEDs
- Techniques: simple circuit design
3. Textile sensors
- Materials: resistive yarns, piezo resistive (pressure sensitive) materials
-Techniques: sensor design
4. Fabric PCBs, part 1
- Materials: conductive fabrics, fabric adhesives
- Techniques: soldering, circuit design
5. Guest lecture by Marcelo Coelho, MIT Media Lab

14. 6. Fabric PCBs, part 2
- Materials: microcontrollers
- Techniques: laser cutting, microcontroller programming
- Machines: laser cutter
7. Guest lecture by Prof. Yoel Fink, MIT Materials Science and Engineering
8. Fibers and yarns
- Materials: fibers and yarns
- Techniques: spinning, metal wrapping, wire extrusion, etc.
- Fiber & yarn terminology, measurement units and methods
9. Guest lecture by Greg Rutledge, MIT Chemical Engineering
10. Spinning workshop
11. Nonwovens
- Materials: fibers (including natural, metal, fusible plastics, paper, etc.)
- Techniques: felting, fusing, sewing
12. Wearable computing, part 1 (joint class with 21W.789 Communicating with Mobile
Technology)
- Materials: Arduino, AndroidTM
- Techniques: networking

15. 13. Guest lecture by Tricia Wilson Nguyen, Thistle Threads
14. Wearable computing, part 2 (joint class with 21W.789 Communicating with Mobile
Technology)
- Materials: Arduino, Android
- Techniques: networking
15. Guest lecture by Despina Papadopoulos, Studio 5050, NYU
16. Wearable computing assignment presentations, with 21W.789 Communicating with
Mobile Technology
17. Embroidery and printing
- Materials: threads, stabilizers, inks and paints
- Techniques: embroidery design, embroidering circuitry, algorithmic design,
digital printing
- Machines: embroidery machine, printers
18. Guest lecture by Rehmi Post and Kit Waal, MIT
19. Final project proposal presentations
20. Guest lecture by Becky Stern, MAKE and CRAFT

16. 21. Knitting and weaving
- Materials: yarns (cotton, wool, etc., conductive, resistive), knitting software
- Techniques: algorithmic knit and weave design, knitting and weaving
software, knitting sensors
- Machines: knitting machines (circular and flat), jacquard looms, hand looms
22. Guest lecture by Anne Whiston Spirn, MIT
23. Field trip to the RISD Textile department
24. Knit, woven, embroidery presentations
25. Pattern design
- Techniques: pattern design, sewing
-Guest lecture by Sheila Kennedy, MIT Architecture and KVA
26. Visit from Kelly Dobson's "Textile Futures" class @ RISD
27. Final project presentations