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Platform Wearable Atelier
Platform Wearable Atelier

Wearable Atelier

Welcome to the Wearable Atelier for Sensing and Haptic Feedback in Sport, Rehabilitation and Wellness

The Wearable Atelier is a platform for designing and developing wearable technologies for sports, health, and rehabilitation. It is initially set up for educational collaborations between the University of Twente (Netherlands) and the University Borås (Sweden), and interested companies in wearable technology. 

At the heart of Wearable Atelier is a set of use cases with focus on haptic feedback, including prototypes and documentation. Partnering companies and the universities define the use cases of the Wearable Atelier. Student projects on a use case are performed in an iterative manner, building on the work of previous students, refining ideas, improving designs, and expanding functionality.  In this way we aim to build up a body of knowledge and expertise that can be used in future projects.

Both, this iterative approach and the complementary expertise of students in different educational programmes, Textile Engineering and Interaction Technology, contribute to higher level prototypes, work experience in relevant case studies, and learning and cooperation in a multidisciplinary context. Students of Creative Technology and Technical Computer Science are also welcome to contribute to the cases. 

The project work on the cases is integrated in different study units and courses. In the case descriptions below you can find short introductions and open questions to work on. You also can find a contact person there to get more information if you are interested to work on a case. 

Companies are welcome to contribute a case for students to work on or support the Wearable Atelier with hardware and software. Please mail to A.Mader if you are interested.


Cases for Student Projects
Haptic Feedback in Sports
Haptic stimuli are a key modality when giving feedback during exercise as other senses are (over)loaded or should be attuned to environment for safety, for example when exercising outside. The feedback can for example raise awareness of movement, be part of a learning strategy, or focus on the social aspect of sports.
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Mediated Social Touch
Mediated social touch is social touch on distance. We have hardware (social touch sleeves including vibration motors, touch sensitive pads) to use for questions on, e.g., experience and intrusiveness, but also development and integration of new or other actuators or different application settings.
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Posture Coach
Sitting too much is anyway a problem, sitting in a slouched position is not desirable. Getting haptic feedback when slouching can improve the posture. Measuring a slouching back is relatively simple, and can be extended to an effective and user-friendly application.
For neck bending towards screens it is more difficult to find a good way to measure. 
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Symmetric Gait Trainer
People who have gotten a hip- or knee-prothesis have problems to walk symmetrically, because through a long period of pain they got used to an asymmetric way of walking. The symmetric gait trainer should help people in their daily walking to be reminded to walk more symmetrically again. This is not to substitute physiotherapy, but in addition, where a physiotherapist sets the goals and gives instructions on the adequate way of walking.
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Touch Library
In our applications on haptic feedback we have the recurring task to select haptic feedback patterns for different body positions that should be motivational, attention seeking, well perceivable, comfortable etc. A library with haptic pattern would be a very useful contribution.
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Electrotactile Haptics
Electrotactile stimulation can create subtle and dynamic sensations such as taps, strokes, waves, or heartbeat-like sensations without mechanical movement. Combined with smart textiles, it could enable soft, wearable and full-body haptic experiences.
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