[Maurin Donneaud], the giant fabric keyboard builder, has also been working on the XYinteraction tactile interface. XYinteraction is made of two sheets of fabric stretched across a square frame with the conductive threads of each sheet running in opposite directions. When the user touches one of the sheets, it makes contact with the other sheet, relaying x-y coordinates to a computer via a LilyPad Arduino. More details after the break.

This diagram illustrates how the XYinterface works.

In one version, a design was rendered onto the translucent textile surface for composer [Marco Marini]. It shows the location of different notes and audio samples. The team has written a software suite to handle zone, gesture, and angular detection, as well as software to handle the sound libraries in use. The detection software is available for Pure Data, Processing, and Python.

Since the XYinteraction is not an instrument in and of itself, rather an input interface, it can be used for other things. With the conductive sheets left blank, it can be used in conjunction with a projector to create this simple touch display. Though the technology is simple, it can be used in many innovative ways. You can see more photos at [Donneaud[‘s Flickr stream, or read up on more specs at the XYinteraction site.

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