A little more than a year ago, we did a short radio story about why capacitive touchscreens (like the one found on the iPhone) don’t work when you’re wearing mittens or gloves. It aired on Spark 51.
Recently, I came across Steve Hoefer‘s ingenious solution to this problem: sew a few loops of capacative thread through the fingers of your glove.
Eager to try this out, I tweeted that I was looking for some conductive thread in Toronto, and @clothbot put me in touch with @hypatiadotca, AKA Leigh Honeywell of hacklab.to. We arranged to meet, and last night, Leigh and I sewed conductive thread into our gloves. Here’s the video to prove it:
A short follow-up story will air on Spark 94. What about you? Have you found solutions to any other cold-weather gadget problems?
Great idea, I like it. Simple innovation is marvelous. Great solution if you use an iPhone-like device. However, I am still trying to figure out a way to use my BlackBerry with mittens or gloves on! Those tiny little QWERTY keys and my thumbs are HUGE wearing ski gloves…
Recently, I came across Steve Hoefer‘s ingenious solution to this problem: sew a few loops of capacative thread through the fingers of your glove.