zPatch: Hybrid Resistive/Capacitive eTextile Input

Abstract

We present zPatch: an eTextile patch for hover, touch, and pressure input, using both resistive and capacitive sensing. zPatches are made by layering a piezo-resistive material between silver-plated ripstop, and embedding it in non-conductive fabric to form a patch. zPatches can be easily ironed onto most fabrics, in any location, enabling easy prototyping or ad hoc modifications of existing garments. We provide open-source resources for building and programming zPatches and present measures of the achieva-ble sensing resolution of a zPatch. A pressure based targeting task demonstrated users could reliably hit pressure tar-gets at up to 13 levels, given appropriate feedback. We demonstrate that the hybrid sensing approach reduces false activations and helps distinguish between gestures. Finally, we present example applications in which we use zPatches for controlling a music player, text entry and gaming input.