ThermoKnitPattern

Inspiration

Recent extreme cold weather needs something better than just keeping our body temperature within the jacket. Stoll Machine seems capable of creating programmed patterns.

What it does

We built a pattern that changes density of conductive thread on a fabric by changing stitching pattern. The programmed pattern is created from the human body heat map. The pattern is expected to generate heat in different density throughout to keep comfortable warmth under the fabric. Flora with a thermometer controls amount of heat generated through the conductive thread to keep the temperature within the zone.

How we built it

General heat map data of a human body was analyzed to generate different density of conductive thread on a fabric pattern using Grasshopper, a plug-in for Rhinoceros. The bitmap image of the pattern was imported to stoll M1plus, a knitting pattern generating program. The conductive thread is connected

Challenges we ran into

Material property of the conductive thread is very different from the regular yarn. The yarn broke some needles.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Unlike typical conductive fabric, our fabric is programmed to have different resistance on different area. Developing such application method for conductive thread will be the first step to performative jacket without any awkward look.

What's next for ThermoKnitPattern

More material and stitching pattern research for conductive thread will be necessary. Applying technique on the larger clothing will require better method to generate power.

Built With

• arduino
• flora
• grasshopper
• rhinoceros
• stoll