We
The Design Research Lab is a network of people, organisations, and non-human agents engaged at the intersection of technologies, materials, and social practices. Our aim is to design socially and ecologically sustainable tools, spaces, and knowledge that support people’s participation in a digital society – based on common principles of inclusiveness and respect for the planet. This puts the basic democratic right to take part in the digital sphere into practice. We start our research from individual lifeworlds and the needs of minoritized groups, beyond consumer majorities.
We are an interdisciplinary team of designers, researchers, tech-enthusiasts and critical thinkers from Berlin University of the Arts, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, as well as Einsteincenter Digital Future (ECDF).
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WM2M: Electronic Tracefinder
The Electronic Tracefinder (E.T.) is a sweater that helps pedestrians navigate in foreign cities. The idea and technical setup is similar to that of the Navigation Hat, but implemented in a different shape. The hood carries a small compass module to determine the steering direction of the wearer. A micro controller patch in the back lining with a bluetooth module is connected to a mobile phone. The phone is used to set a destination where the wearer would like to go. Eight vibration motors around the neck and chest, one for right, left, front and back, and in between, give feedback if the wearer reaches a crossroads. If she should turn left, the left vibration motor will be activated.
In the center front of the sweater, there is a tricolor LED that can be used to give simple feedback to the wearer if she takes the wrong direction. Two pockets at the front also serve as switches. If the pocket flap is on top of the pocket, the switch is open and the navigation is turned on. If the pocket flap is inside the pocket, the switch is closed and the navigation is interrupted.
The sweater can also be opened up on the seams under the arms and on the sides of the body and be used as a picknick blanket, once the destination has been reached. This research was part of the Wearable M2M project.