The Music Sleeve is a wearable controller for playing music on a Mobile Device. This knitted sleeve, which otherwise could act as a scarf, can be slung across one’s shoulders and made to function as a music controller by putting a handful of coins in it. This project was done as part of “Design and Irritation”, a research study led by Dr. Phil. Katharina Bredies
at the Design Research Lab
. The Music sleeve presents a novel and interesting way to interact with other existing devices, in this case the music player. Made from soft materials and having unfamiliar form it is appealing and curious to start with. Being wireless helps one to move it around without constraints. Using only a few rules, the interaction is very logical and easy to grasp.
The Sleeve can be rotated around the shoulder to freely move the coins inside.The Sleeve has four pull strings along its length dividing it in four equal sections. These strings can be pulled thus blocking the way of the coins inside or locking them in a particular section of the sleeve. Depending on the location of the coins inside the tube and the combination of strings pulled, different messages are sent to the music player in the phone. For example, rotating the sleeve downwards skips to the next track, locking the coins within half of the knitted sleeve by pulling the strings shuffles the playlist.
Made at Design Research Lab, UdK Berlin & Deutsche Telekom Laboratories in Berlin.
Music sleeve is a fabric music controller for your smart phone
The sleeve acts as a music controller when you put some loose change inside.
Knotting-controls for the music sleeve