A Design-Led, Materials Based Approach to Human Centered Applications Using Modified Dielectric Electroactive Polymer Sensors
- Submitting institution
-
Royal College of Art(The)
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Toomey5
- Type
- E - Conference contribution
- DOI
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10.1007/978-3-319-17136-4_2
- Title of conference / published proceedings
- Sensor Systems and Software: 5th International Conference, S-CUBE 2014, Coventry, UK, October 6-7, 2014, Revised Selected Papers
- First page
- 11
- Volume
- 143
- Issue
- -
- ISSN
- 1867-8211
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2015
- URL
-
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-17136-4_2
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
3
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This peer-reviewed article contributes to the emerging field of stretchable electronics and examines the potential for soft, stretchable smart materials to be used for an intuitive method of sensing biometric data. Presented to an audience concerned with pervasive computing and wireless sensing networks, the physicality and tangibility of the wearable sensor’s interface with digital data brings new opportunities for the field. From a design perspective, the project also highlights the importance of craft within a technological landscape as the smart materials needed to be completely reconfigured in order to function within a wearable context.
Published in a journal normally focused on purely scientific issues, the article went beyond describing the development of a prototype thoracic sensor vest using dielectric electro active polymers (DEAP) to also set out a design-led approach to innovation. The state-of-the-art DEAP sensors needed to be modified in order to fulfil a design-led need to be discreet and unobtrusive. In order to do this, the sensors needed to be deconstructed and then reconstructed and hand crafted in a new format to make them suitable for use in close proximity to the human body. The modified dielectric electroactive polymer sensor was created by Toomey and her research assistants at Northumbria University’s design research lab, P3i.
Positioning the handcrafted DEAP sensor as a transitive material, i.e., one that bridges the physical and digital domains, Toomey concludes that these new types of materials need to be explored and understood by designers if their social and cultural values are to be understood alongside their functional properties. In 2014 the research was also presented at the 5th international conference on Sensors Systems and Software, at the Future World Symposium E-Futures, London, and in Toomey’s invited lecture for the Wireless World Research Forum, University of Surrey, UK.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
