Sewing in VR

Sewing in VR is an implementation focused prototype simulating sewing in VR. It uses the Unity ObiRope plug-in and simulates the experience of sewing with a hand sewing needle. Multiple particles are used to generate the ‘thread’ used in the prototype which all respond to the physics simulated inside Unity realistically and collides with the ‘fabric’ object. In the video, a user initially attempts to do a blanket stitch but as the digital version of the user’s hands were occasionally jumpy resulting in them losing their grip on the needle too often, they decided to do a simple zig zag stitch. Although they were eventually able to create the zig zag stitches, there seemed to be some minor calibration issues with the Leap Motion device that was used to track the user’s hands. Additionally, using ObiRope to generate a single thread with predetermined length presented issues as the way ObiRope functions is that it stretches a little bit (the distance between the particles making up the thread increases) the heavier, or longer, the rope/thread gets. On top of this, if the distance between two particles is too large – larger than the thickness of the fabric, then the rope/thread does not actually go around the fabric or form a stitch. The stitch simply slips, and no stitch is formed. To fix this issue the user needs to generate extra length of thread as he/she needs it instead of beginning the experience with a predetermined length of thread as in non-VR physical sewing. My next step is to implement ObiRope on the colcha embroidery experience described below.