This course aims to explore the limitless potential of interactive wearables — from virtual and augmented reality to smart textiles and artificial intelligence-based health-monitoring devices and immersive gaming gear. In this course, students will learn about designing wearable interfaces for seamless interaction among wearables, users, and environments; experimenting with sensors, actuators, microcontrollers, and artificial intelligence-driven applications; and leveraging hardware and software for wearable system prototyping. After completing this course, students should be able to apply interactive wearable technologies to tackle real-world projects, turning ideas into tangible solutions for various applications such as virtual and augmented reality, gaming, fashion, communication, and beyond.

At the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Understand common interaction paradigms and input/output modalities for interactive wearables.
• Identify design requirements for interactive wearables.
• Analyse potential applications for interactive wearables.
• Create prototypes of interactive wearables using relevant interactive prototyping techniques.
• Analyse functionality, usability, and reliability of interactive wearable prototypes.

Workload: 4 units

Note: This course is designed for graduate students but limited spaces are available for Year 4 undergraduate students.

Course syllabus

1. Introduction to wearable technology

• Overview of wearable technology
• Historical perspective and current trends in wearable technology
• Challenges and opportunities in the field of wearable technology

2. Wearable user interfaces

• Human body spaces
• Wearable interaction paradigms
• Context-aware wearable interfaces

3. Input modalities for wearables

• Types of input modalities
• Wearable sensors
• Interactive prototyping techniques for input modalities

4. Output modalities for wearables

• Types of output modalities
• Wearable actuators
• Interactive prototyping techniques for output modalities

5. Design and development of wearables

• Design requirements for wearables
• Design methodology for wearable interactions
• Development process for wearables

6. Applications of wearables

• Wearables for accessibility
• Wearables for human augmentation
• Practical applications: fitness, metaverse, ageing, art, heritage, etc.

7. Integration of wearable systems

• Wireless communication: WIFI and Bluetooth
• Cross-devices wearable systems
• Cross-platform wearable systems

8. Design and fabrication of wearable smart textiles

• Design of smart textiles
• Fabrication of smart textiles
• Modalities for integration of smart textiles

9. Evaluation of wearable systems

• Aspects of wearable evaluation
• User testing
• Role-play testing