The LilyTiny: A Case Study in Expanding Access to Electronic Textiles
Emily Lovell, Leah Buechley, James Davis · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts · 2022
The LilyTiny sewable microcontroller was created ten years ago, in an effort to make electronic textiles more accessible. At the time, e-textiles was gaining traction as a means to invite more diverse participation in computing, but financial and instructional barriers stood in the way of broader adoption. In addition, there existed a scaffolding gap between projects involving lights, batteries, and thread – and those requiring programming (i.e. leveraging the LilyPad Arduino and/or additional sensors or outputs). In an effort to expand access to electronic textiles, we designed the LilyTiny, an inexpensive, pre-programmed sewable microcontroller which controls assorted LED patterns, and which later became available for purchase through SparkFun. Alongside the LilyTiny, we released a free workshop guide for educators which details five low-cost activities that can be taught without any prior electronics experience.