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Smart textiles development is combining computing and textile technologies to create tactile, functional objects such as smart garments, soft medical devices, and space suits. However, the field also combines the massive waste streams of both the digital electronics and textiles industries. The following work explores how HCI researchers might be poised to address sustainability and waste in future smart textiles development through interventions at design time. Specifically, we perform a design inquiry into techniques and practices for reclaiming and reusing smart textiles materials and explore how such techniques can be integrated into smart textiles design tools. Beginning with a practice in sustainable or "slow" fashion, unravelling a garment into yarn, the suite of explorations titled "Unfabricate" probes values of time and labor in crafting a garment; speculates how a smart textile garment may be designed with reuse in mind; and imagines how electronic and textile components may be given new life in novel uses.
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Transient Internet of Things: Redesigning the Lifetime of Electronics for a More Sustainable Networked Environment
Mark Weiser predicted in 1991 that computing would lead to individuals interacting with countless computing devices, seamlessly integrating them into their daily lives until they disappear into the background. However, achieving this seamless integration while addressing the associated environmental concerns is challenging. Trillions of smart devices with varied capabilities and form-factor are needed to build a networked environment of this magnitude. Yet, conventional computing paradigms require plastic housings, PCB boards, and rare-earth minerals, coupled with hazardous waste, and challenging reclamation and recycling, leading to significant e-waste. The current linear lifecycle design of electronic devices does not allow circulation among different life stages, neglecting features like recyclability and repairability during the design process. In this position paper, we present the concept of computational materials designed for transiency as a substitute for current devices. We envision that not all devices must be designed with performance, robustness, or even longevity as the sole goal. We detail computer systems challenges to the circular economy of computational materials and provide strategies and sketches of tools to assess a device's entire lifetime environmental impact.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2145584
- PAR ID:
- 10492961
- Publisher / Repository:
- ACM
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2nd ACM Workshop on Sustainable Computer Systems (HotCarbon ’23)
- ISBN:
- 9798400702426
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 8
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Transient electronics Sustainable ubiquitous computing
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Boston MA USA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3604930.3605723
