OCHO TONOS is an audible textile interface powered by Arduino

Developed by Esteban de la Torre and Judit Eszter Karpati, who together make up the EJTech duo, OCHO TONOS is an audible textile interface for multi-sensorial interaction, involving both touch and sound.

According to the pair of Makers, the objective of the project was to create a soundscape through sensor technology inviting audiophiles to perform and explore with reactive textile elements. In order to accomplish this feat, EJTech employed an Arduino Mega ADK (ATmega2560).

With the textile itself acting as the interface, the inputs coming from a user’s “tactile interaction” are translated into a digital platform, and filtered through Max/MSP. (Max/MSP allows for the manipulation of digital audio signals in real-time, enables users to create their own synthesizers and effects processors.)

Watch as OCHO TONOS “re-contextualizes our tactile interaction with textile acting as an interface, where each element triggers, affects and modifies each sounds properties.”

If you recall, Karpati also incorporated various senses in her nifty color-changing Chromosonic design.

 

Color-changing Chromosonic textiles react to heat and sound

Judit Eszter Karpati, a Budapest-based textile designer, wanted to further blur the fading boundaries between the digital realm and physical world.

Karpati was specifically interested in exploring the relationship between technology and textile arts, which is how Chromosonic was born. The avant-garde fabric uses Karpati’s out-of-the-box technology dubbed “Electronic Programmable Textile Interface,” which enables it to become more sensitive to heat and sound, and to react by producing colorful shifting patterns.

Like a chameleon, the textile alters its patterns based on its surroundings, which is made possible by an [Atmel based] Arduino board, a 12V power supply and nearly 20 custom PCBs. These components control four industrial 24V DC power supplies that are responsible for heating the two moving textile displays — each of which are woven with nichrome wires, screenprinted with thermochromatic dye, and pre-programmed with Karpati’s patterns.

When the power supplies are activated, the wires quickly heat up and the the thermochromatic dyes react to the change in color, ranging from black and blue to white and red. Aside from heat, the textile will also respond to pressure.

Learn more about Chromosonic by checking out the project’s official page here. Interested in chameleon-like clothing? You’ll want to read this, too.