This paper explores the social meaning of clothing-based displays of biosignals. How do friends make sense of their own and each other's skin conductance display in the context of a conversation? We developed Hint, a dynamic thermochromic t-shirt with ambiguous patterns that change color when its wearer's skin conductance increases, an indication of sudden arousal. We investigated how pairs of friends, each wearing the shirt, conversed and interpreted the display. Participants shared a broad range of interpretations, and emotions such as joy and embarrassment were associated with an increase in skin conductance. Additionally, participants expressed desires for their skin conductance displays to help validate their feelings and show emotional engagement with others. We explore ambiguity in the context of clothing-based information displays and discuss how skin conductance display became part of social performance in our study. From there, we suggest framing biosignals as social cues along with facial expression, gestures, etc., and begin to question what design territories this might uncover.

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Adding electronics to textiles can be time-consuming and requires technical expertise. We introduce SensorSnaps, lowpower wireless sensor nodes that seamlessly integrate into caps of fabric snap fasteners. SensorSnaps provide a new technique to quickly and intuitively augment any location on the clothing with sensing capabilities. SensorSnaps securely attach and detach from ubiquitous commercial snap fasteners. Using inertial measurement units, the SensorSnaps detect tap and rotation gestures, as well as track body motion. We optimized the power consumption for SensorSnaps to work continuously for 45 minutes and up to 4 hours in capacitive touch standby mode. We present applications in which the SensorSnaps are used as gestural interfaces for a music player controller, cursor control, and motion tracking suit. The user study showed that SensorSnap could be attached in around 71 seconds, similar to attaching off-the-shelf snaps, and participants found the gestures easy to learn and perform. SensorSnaps could allow anyone to effortlessly add sophisticated sensing capacities to ubiquitous snap fasteners.

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