PocketView: Through-Fabric Information Displays

PocketView: Through-Fabric Information Displays
Antony Albert Raj Irudayaraj, Rishav Agarwal, Nikhita Joshi, Aakar Gupta, Omid Abari, Daniel Vogel

UIST'21: ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology
Session: Interacting Across And Through

Abstract
People often have to remove their phone from an inaccessible location like a pocket to view things like notifications and directions. We explore the idea of viewing such information through the fabric of a pocket using low resolution bright LED matrix displays. A survey confirms viewing information on inaccessible phones is desirable, and establishes types of pockets in garments worn by respondents and what objects are typically put in pockets. A technical evaluation validates that LED light can shine through many common garment fabrics. Based on these results, functional hardware prototypes are constructed to demonstrate different form factors of through-fabric display devices, such as a phone, wallet, a key fob, a pen, and earbud headphone case. A simple interaction vocabulary for viewing key information on these devices is described, and the social and technical aspects of the approach are discussed.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1145/3472749.3474766
WEB:: https://uist.acm.org/uist2021/

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