Graduate displays 2015: Royal School of Art graduate Cameron Bowen has created a tape measure that enables tailors to make digital material patterns while retaining the intimacy of the fitting process.
Bowen developed the Parametric Tape Measure although studying on the RCA’s Layout Goods course as component of an investigation into the intersection of style and technological innovation.
“I truly needed to investigate the dialogue in between digital fabrication and conventional craftsmanship,” Bowen informed Dezeen.
His aim was to keep the connection amongst the tailor and consumer even though being measured for a suit, but deliver the method up to date making use of digital technology for far better efficiency.
“I took a trip to Paris and was measured for a pair of trousers in the basement of a tailoring shop by two Iranian refugees,” Bowen mentioned. “It was really weird but genuinely good and one of the strangest issues – the sort of minute that I needed to capture in this undertaking.”
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As an alternative of making use of a strategy like 3D scanning – which could be employed to capture all of the body measurements without having any physical interaction – the tape measure permits the tailor to operate in the manner they are accustomed to.
Nonetheless, the user doesn’t have to pause to compose down each amount, as the gadget wirelessly sends the measurements to parametric modelling software program – a kind of computer program that alters shapes in response to modifying numerical values. This software then builds the shape of the pattern bit by bit.
“I have developed an interaction that enables for tailors to get buyer measurements and simultaneously have people measurements translated as patterns in front of the customer,” mentioned Bowen.
The device incorporates a sensor that counts the rotations of the tape as it is pulled away from its source, and translates the figures into linear distances. The measurements have to be taken in a particular purchase, comparable to how they are obtained in normal tailoring practices.
The distances are then translated by an algorithm that draws the patterns inside of a laptop aided layout (CAD) environment, which can be displayed on a screen while the procedure takes spot.
After the patterns are created, they can be printed out to the proper scale and laid on the fabric to be reduce about.
A range of various technologies are currently being proposed and utilised to create customised clothes and accessories, such as 3D scanning to produce bespoke dresses and augmented modelling tools for designing wearable 3D-printed pieces.
Nonetheless, Bowen believes that these substantial-tech processes pose a threat to centuries-old tailoring traditions and the human interaction that comes with them.
“This level of intimacy becomes endangered as technologies progresses,” he explained. Comparable resources that link digital modelling and traditional craft include Unfold’s set of instruments that measure bodily objects and transfer the dimensions to a digital model.
The Parametric Tape Measure is on display at the Show RCA graduate exhibition in London until 5 July, along with a “electrical power glove” for carving hard resources by hand and a tactile interface for navigating CAD environments.
