SensorSnaps: Integrating Wireless Sensor Nodes into Fabric Snap Fasteners for Textile Interfaces

Adding electronics to textiles can be time-consuming and requires technical expertise. We introduce SensorSnaps, low-power wireless sensor nodes that seamlessly integrate into caps of fabric snap fasteners. SensorSnaps provide a new technique to quickly and intuitively augment any location on the clothing with sensors. SensorSnaps securely attach and detach from ubiquitous commercial snap fasteners. With inertial measurement units, the SensorSnaps detect tap and rotation gestures, as well as body motion tracking. We optimized the power consumption for SensorSnaps to work continuously for 45 minutes and up to 4 hours in capacitive touch standby mode. We present applications where SensorSnaps are used as gesture interfaces for a music player controller, chorded keyboard, cursor control, and motion tracking suit. The user study showed that SensorSnap could be attached in around 71 seconds, similar to attaching off-the-shelf snaps and participants found the gestures easy to learn and perform. SensorSnaps will allow anyone to add sophisticated sensing capacities to ubiquitous snap fasteners.