Physical interaction design DH2400

http://www.instructables.com/id/Romance-Pants/

Funny and interesting. The interactions introduced with this project are relevant to physical user-experience and are about wearable devices.

Zippers 
Zippers where used as sliding potentiometer using conductive thread and resistors. They have a very interesting element as they can be used progressively (different if you unzip half way or all the way).

In our example they used them to dim down the lights and to turn up the volume.

Buttons 
The buttons is used as a switch which lights up the candles. When the switch is turned on (which means the button is off) it send a signal to the candles (which are a box with 9V batter and 5V relay)

How does it work 
1) Zippers are used as sliding potentiometer using conductive thread and resistors
2) When sliding them down, arduino sends a wireless signal to a controller responsible for the lights and the music.
3) Buttons are opened and the switch is turned on, Arduino sends a message to the candles and they are lit up.

Conclusion 
Interesting use of physical wearable objects (buttons, zippers) that can be used for several other use cases.

Especially the ability of a zipper to work as a sliding potentiometer can lead to several other innovative uses.