Conductive fibers with custom placement conformal to embroidered patterns
AssigneeGoogle Inc.
InventorsShiho Tremmel, Ivan Poupyrev, Munehiko Sato
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for interactive textiles including conductive fibers are provided. An interactive textile may comprise a flexible substrate, an embroidered thread-pattern defining an ornamental feature on a first surface of the flexible substrate, and a touch input sensor comprising a set of conductive threads coupled to a second surface of the flexible substrate at a corresponding area of at least a portion of the embroidered thread pattern. The set of conductive threads form a conductive thread-pattern on the second surface that is conformal to the ornamental feature on the first surface at the portion of the embroidered thread pattern.
Claims20
An interactive textile, comprising:
- a flexible substrate;
- an embroidered thread pattern defining an ornamental feature on a first surface of the flexible substrate, the embroidered thread pattern defining at least one curved edge of the ornamental feature relative to the first surface of the flexible substrate;
- and
- a touch input sensor comprising a set of conductive threads coupled to an opposite second surface of the flexible substrate at a corresponding area of at least a portion of the embroidered thread pattern, the set of conductive threads forming a conductive thread pattern on the opposite second surface that is conformal to the ornamental feature on the first surface at the portion of the embroidered thread pattern, the set of conductive threads being conformal to the at least one curved edge of the ornamental feature, and the embroidered thread pattern including one or more embroidery threads that extend through the flexible substrate from the opposite second surface to the first surface.
An interactive object, comprising:
- an interactive textile comprising an embroidered thread pattern on a first surface of a flexible substrate and a set of conductive fibers coupled to an opposite second surface of the flexible substrate at an area of at least a portion of the embroidered thread pattern, the embroidered thread pattern defining at least one curved edge relative to the first surface of the flexible substrate, the set of conductive fibers comprising a conductive thread pattern that is conformal to the at least one curved edge defined by the embroidered thread pattern, the embroidered thread pattern including one or more embroidery threads that extend through the flexible substrate from the opposite second surface to the first surface;
- and
- an electronics component coupled to the flexible substrate, the electronics component in communication with the set of conductive fibers.
A method of forming an interactive object, comprising:
- forming an embroidered thread pattern on a flexible substrate, the embroidered thread pattern defining an ornamental feature on a first surface of the flexible substrate, the embroidered thread pattern defining at least one curved edge of the ornamental feature relative to the first surface of the flexible substrate;
- and
- forming a touch input sensor comprising a set of conductive threads coupled to an opposite second surface of the flexible substrate at a corresponding area of at least a portion of the embroidered thread pattern, the set of conductive threads forming a conductive thread pattern on the opposite second surface that is conformal to the ornamental feature on the first surface at the portion of the embroidered thread pattern, the embroidered thread pattern including one or more embroidery threads that extend through the flexible substrate from the opposite second surface to the first surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.