Tag: fashion tech

Clothing Tags for Individuals with Visual Impairments

January 17, 2014 / kateringland

August 8, 2012. UMBC SURF Poster Session

Self expression through clothing is inherently visual and is not readily accessible to those with visual impairments. Presently, the best method for conveying information is with high-tech devices that identify fabric colors, but don’t give information about pattern, graphics, washing instructions, or style. Designing clothing tags for the visually impaired user requires that the tags be discreet, comfortable, easy to locate, and that it be reasonably simple to retrieve information from them. With this study we contribute a collection of tagging systems that can be used in future research for the development and testing of fully functional tagging systems that will empower visually impaired users when making clothing decisions.

Ringland, Kathryn. “Accessible Clothing Tags: Designing for Individuals with Visual Impairments”.CHI 2013. Paris, France. May 2013.*

Williams, M., Ringland, K., Hurst, A. “Designing an Accessible Clothing Tag System for People with Visual Impairments”. ASSETS 2013. Bellevue, WA. October 2013.*

ASSETS 2012 Conference

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Daily Log: CHI2013 Day 1

April 29, 2013 / kateringland / 0 Comments

Woke up at 7 this morning in order to give myself plenty of time to get ready and head to the convention center before the morning keynote. The weather turned really nice today so it was a very nice walk to the convention center from our hotel. It takes about 15 minutes if I walk a little briskly.

The keynote speaker was Paola Antonella from the MOMA. Her talk was about design- what is it and how people perceive it. People often mix up design with art, but they really aren’t the same thing at all. She talked about how design is about the interaction, how people interact with objects and their environment. She explained her video game installment. She maintains that these video games are one way users interact with their world, often times intertwining the physical with the virtual. To me, it now makes sense why Dwarf Fortress would be the perfect sort of interactive object for her installment. I really enjoyed her talk and it made me think a little differently about how I personally view the things I’m interacting with and how I would like to approach design in the future.

CHI 2013 Dwarf Fortress

I then went to the Enhancing Access session. My two favorite papers from the session were Older Adults as Digital Content Producers by Jenny Waycott et al and Health Vlogger- Viewer Interaction in Chronic Illness Management by Leslie Liu et al. The first was interesting because it looked at how older adults can be users and creators of digital content and how that interaction played out amongst themselves. The second showed what vloggers on youtube have done when suffering from chronic illness. The vlogging actually acted as a wider support network for the person suffering from the illness and actually gave them a sense of purpose and comfort by educating viewers on their illness (like showing people they are still a human being even though they are HIV positive or demonstrating how chemo works). I connected with this paper because I have found blogging and making videos therapeutic in my own life.

Then I had lunch from the grocery store at the lower level of the conference center. I just sat on a step and watched people go by for an hour (and there were plenty of them). It was quite refreshing.

I then went to Technologies for Life 1 in the afternoon. Overall, I think I enjoyed this session more than the more session. I don’t know if I was just more awake or if the speakers were just more engaging, or I liked the topics more- or all three. I think my favorite paper was called Digital Motherhood: How does technology help new mothers? by Larna Gibson and Vicki Hanson. This was a study on how new mothers use technology, such as smart phones and the internet, to stay connected to the outside world. As I know a lot of people who have recently had kids I have personally witnessed this phenomenon. I liked the way the study was conducted- the researcher had just had a child so she was already attending “mommy and me” groups. She basically did an anthropological survey and recorded relevant information as it surfaced during conversations. She then later interviewed a select few of the mothers for a more in-depth follow up. The note Access Lens: A Gesture-Based Screen Reader for Real-World Documents by Shaun Kane et all was also really cool. The technology used was a camera that could help a visually impaired user find their way around a paper map, for instance.

I then attended the Student Research Competition judging session. It was a complete mess from an administrative standpoint. The room was too small and there was no where to hang our posters. Students had to alternate holding posters when it was not their turn to talk. Because of the time crunch, the judges had to split into two groups, which meant we had to present our poster twice, once for each set of judges. And the groups went at the same time, so the room was completely silent except for two people talking about their posters at once. Then it was timed, so we had exactly one minute to speak and then 1.5 minutes for questions. The timer would yell “STOP!” really loud at each interval. It was all very nerve-wracking. I think my talk went okay, but I probably could have prepared more. Anyway, I did not win, so I will not have to give a presentation on Wednesday. I still am giving my poster presentation to the public during the first break tomorrow, but then after that I can relax and enjoy the rest of the conference.

I ended my evening with dinner at Oresto just down the street from the conference center. It was my very first Abowd family meeting. I was even presented to the group as the newest family member (second generation apparently). It was really nice. Everyone seems super great and I’m really happy to have such a supportive group of people around me.

A street on my walk back to my hotel in the evening.

Now it is late and I have another long, full day ahead of me tomorrow!

ASSETS 2012 Conference

December 23, 2012 / kateringland / 0 Comments

To be honest, I started this blog immediately after I returned from the ASSETS 2012 conference, but everything else in this semester got away from me and I didn’t post it. I’m on winter break now, so I am finally able to catch up on things.

I have finally returned home from my journey to Boulder, Colorado. Firstly, we drove. We should have realized what a crazy idea this was when we stood in a room full of Ringlands, told them our plan to drive down to Boulder and back in a week, and no one even batted an eye.

Some of the Ringlands eating at the lutefisk dinner in Poulsbo.

With a belly full of lutefisk (because nothing says the start to a great road trip than unending plates of lefse and lutefisk) we left Poulsbo, WA to arrive 36 hours later in Boulder, CO. I’m going to admit upfront that I missed the keynote Monday morning. We rolled into the hotel as the address was about half-way over. If only we hadn’t stopped for that 2 hours of sleep in Rawlins, Wyoming!

First impressions:

*ASSETS is much, MUCH smaller than any other conference I have attended (less than 100 people versus a couple thousand plus). This allowed me to get to know a lot of the people there.

*ASSETS is a single-track deal. This was great! I didn’t have to choose between two awesome papers. Everything is in one room. With the exception of the keynote, I didn’t have to miss any of the conference.

*It’s really nice having such a close-knit, small community. People were super enthusiastic not only about their own projects, but other people’s work and were very willing to get in there and give each other ideas.

There was a lot of really fantastic work presented at the conference. It ranged from web accessibility to assistive tech hardware to biofeedback interfaces. The populations being worked with were quite varied from physically disabled to the elderly to the visually impaired and so on. I think the most heartening thing about the conference was to see how much great work is being done to help people.

The grad student I worked with on my DREU project, Michele A. Burton, gave her presentation on the accessible fashion we had been working on. She did a fantastic job. I very much wish to follow in her footsteps.

Boulder itself was absolutely beautiful. I had the opportunity to visit the campus and see the Human-Centered Computing Lab there. It was great to meet some of the students and see what projects they are working on. This is definitely one of my top choices for graduate schools.

We got 5 inches of snow just as the conference was ending. It forced us to stay an extra day, but it was worth it.

A creek near our hotel in Boulder, CO.

Week 10

August 13, 2012 / kateringland / 0 Comments

In a whirlwind of getting everything done, the summer is over! This past week I created a video showcasing all of the tagging systems I put into clothes. I also wrote a presentation, which I gave at the Summer Undergraduate Research Festival on Wednesday, August 8th. This was the same festival that I created and presented a poster at.

Here are the slides from my presentation. The video I created followed these slides.

Tagging Systems to Assist Visually Impaired Users Identify Visual Data in Clothing.

And here is the video I created:

All in all, I’m really sad to be going home and leaving this project behind. I had a lot of fun working on it and learned a LOT. It was wonderful working with so many great people. I’m super excited to be continuing on with school and working on graduate school applications this fall!

Week 6

July 16, 2012 / kateringland / 0 Comments

This week I worked with Amy and Michele to redevelop my project scope for the rest of the summer. In addition to RFID tags and readers for clothing, I am going to help brainstorm other ways someone could tag their clothing. I spent the first part of the week looking up how people are currently keeping track of their clothes.

I then decided on some different ways to tag clothes. Some ideas were buttons, safety pins, QR codes inside the clothes, and RFID tags. I then went on a shopping trip with Michele to stock our closet and get supplies for our prototype systems. At the end of the week I started prototyping some tags.

Sample Tag

I also spent some time with Amy looking forward to see where this research is headed. I’ve started thinking about what I will be doing after this summer is over and applying to graduate school. This experience hasn’t gotten me excited about keeping the momentum I have here going.

Week 3

June 25, 2012 / kateringland / 0 Comments

I spent a lot of this week playing with my arduino kit and researching the things we might use with it. I began compiling lists of shields that will attach to the arduino to add functioning. I also looked up tutorials for putting together an LCD kit from Sparkfun.

In my researching, I found a pretty cool blog: Fashioning Tech. It’s fun to go through the articles and see what interesting other people around the world have been doing with fashion and tech. Some of the projects are really quite beautiful. For instance, this article about lace that reads poetry is fascinating.

I think the highlight of the week was learning how to solder from Amy. I’m going to be using it to put circuits and wiring together, but it’s one of those things that is just good to know for life. (My dad is very excited that I can now help him with home repairs.)

My very first soldered wire.

This coming week, Michele will be back from her conferences in the UK and we will be sitting down on Monday to narrow my project down for the summer. I’m really looking forward to hearing about everything she learned at the conferences!

Week 2

June 18, 2012 / kateringland / 0 Comments

I can’t believe another week has already gone by! I guess that’s what happens when you keep yourself busy. Monday we had our first “Fashion Project” meeting. We discussed what each of us is working on and plans for the future. I am working on this project with Michele, the PhD student, Amy, my advisor, and Jeffrey, another undergraduate.

My main task this week was to study up on the arduino and when the kit arrived to start playing with it. Below are some pictures of the unveiling of my arduino kit when it arrived.

Arduino Kit

So many pieces.

Packaging of Arduino "We Love Open Source"

I love the packaging that says “We Love Open Source”.

It’s so little!

Tuesday was an all-hands meeting. It was nice to be able to meet everyone else in the lab and see what projects they are working on. It’s also a nice place to get help and coordinate on skills.

Wednesday I volunteered at the NCIL Conference in Washington, D.C. at the Grand Hyatt. I was there to help assist in the e-voting that was taking place for NCIL’s board. The e-voting system was being run by a group from Clemson and is meant to be accessible to everyone. There is an article about it on Clemson’s website, if you’re interested in learning more about it.

This coming week I plan on taking the plunge and getting my arduino to run with my laptop. I have all the software installed, I just need to load the sketches and go. Hopefully, I’ll have some success to report on that front next week.

Week 1

June 12, 2012 / kateringland / 0 Comments

It’s amazing to me how quickly a week can go by! I have settled in to my living arrangements and even ventured forth a bit over the weekend to check out a local yarn shop. The weather is proving the most difficult thing to get used to, since I’m from Vancouver, WA- it’s 20+ degrees warmer here and much more humid.

This past week, I narrowed down my project, so I have an idea of what I will be working on now. I’ve decided to try my hand at learning the hardware aspects of Arduino, even though my previous electronics experience is limited. The project I’ll be working on is Making Fashion Accessible. You can read more about it on Michele’s website. She’s the PhD student that I will be working closely with, as the overall project is hers. I really liked the idea of working on a project in accessibility. My role will be working on the scanners or smart tags that could be implemented in clothing to make their information ‘readable’ by a smart phone.

This week my goal is to learn as much as I can about Arduino and fashion and technology. Michele is going to a conference on Wearable Computing next week, so when she gets back, the real work on the project can start. I have until then to learn about electronics and wearable hardware.

Even though it’s only been one week, I can already safely say that I am really glad I have had the opportunity to do this this summer. I have learned a lot about grad school in the last week and I am more certain than ever that this is what I would like to do next year. I am super excited to be working with such meaningful research!

Tag: fashion tech

Clothing Tags for Individuals with Visual Impairments

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