A Construction Kit for Electronic Textiles

Abstract

Construction kits have long been popular as educational artifacts, supporting and encouraging creative explorations of engineering and design; but to date, such kits have had little connection with the new and expanding field of electronic textiles (e-textiles). We believe that creating an "e-textile construction kit" could provide a powerful new medium to engage a diverse range of students in electrical engineering and computer science. This paper, then, describes a construction kit designed to introduce novices to electronics, computing and design via e-textiles. We describe each component of the kit, provide examples of constructions that were built with the kit, and examine the durability of these constructions. We conclude with a discussion of the results of preliminary user testing and an exploration of our plans for continued work in this area.