Gesture control and pulse measurement through embedded films

A method of controlling one or more functions of an electronic device, the method comprising:

• applying a wearable item to the body of a user, the wearable item comprising a film of an electrically active material configured to exhibit one or more electrical properties that vary responsive to a movement or gesture performed by the user;
• monitoring the one or more electrical properties of the electrically active material;
• detecting a change in the one or more electrical properties of the electrically active material;
• and
• activating a control function of an electronic device external to the wearable item responsive to detecting a predetermined pattern in the change in the one or more electrical properties of the electrically active material, the control function selected from the group consisting of starting rendering of an audio track, stopping rendering of the audio track, skipping the audio track, raising a volume of rendered audio, lowering the volume of the rendered audio, initiating a phone call, terminating the phone call, activating active noise reduction, deactivating active noise reduction, selecting a level of active noise reduction, invoking a virtual personal assistant, navigating items in a list presented via augmented reality, or selecting an item in the list presented via augmented reality.