Profile

+ Smart Textile innovator, designer, researcher and product developer with experience in E-textiles, Soft Technology, Traditional crafts, Smart textiles, Interactive textiles, HCI, Product design and development, Product launch, Go-to-market strategy, Democratising Technology and Synergy between Craft, Design, and Technology.

+ Keen interest in developing e-textile solutions for homes and institutions

+ Presented at various international conferences and exhibitions as well as published several papers in journals and conferences.

 

Research Interest



Exploring and developing solutions for scaling up e-textiles/smart textiles for large scale manufacturing for the marketplace

Democratising technology, to find new ways in which traditional narrative textiles can shape the future of Smart textiles and interactive technology for intuitive adoption of these artefacts for domestic communication/interaction. To develop NeoCraft, a new genre of artefacts that lie at the intersection of 'craft objects' and 'gadgets'.

 

Work Experience

 

Sept '14 - present- Assistant Vice President / Innovation, Welspun

                                   Head of Smart Textiles Innovation team. Set up TILT, the Smart Home Textiles start-up within Welspun

                                   Implements and manage Product Development initiatives, objectives and sets direction for the company in Smart Textiles

                                   Research on new materials, manufacturing processes and techniques for large scale production

                                   Building business and partnerships with key leading technology and related companies globally

                                   



Jun '11 - Jun '12 - Guest Researcher, Smart Textiles Design Lab, The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Boras, Sweden.

                                   Research topic - Smart Textiles and Crafts

                                   Conducted workshops with various local craft communities, including the native Sami Community. Introduced participants to e-  

                                   textiles to find ways to merge traditional crafts with smart textiles and materials to create new expressions and products.

                                   Developed an electro kit for beginners to explore the integration of electronics and textiles



Apr '09 – Apr '11 - Research Fellow, Keio-NUS CUTE Center and Mixed Reality Lab, National University of Singapore, Singapore

                                   Sand – interactive carpet for subtle and remote communication and connectedness

                                   Ambikraf – a non-emissive colour changing textiles for display; Developing work with traditional textiles crafts along with this new  

                                   technology. Exploring artefacts that fall in the space between ‘craft’ and ‘gadget’

                                   Lovotics – design and development of a robot that feels and expresses ‘Philia’ love

                                   Liquid Interface – controlling ferrofluid to use as a medium for sensing, interaction, communication and display.

                                   Design thinking – organized workshop as part of Singapore Design Festival ’09.

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Feb '06 – Mar '09 - Research Associate and Artist-Researcher-In-Residence, Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, India

                                   Conceived and conducted the international symposium ‘IT+T – Rethinking textiles and technology in Design’ in Dec ’06. Sponsored by   

                                   Chamundi Silk Mills and Srishti School of Art Design and Technology.

                                   Material exploration for Interactive Textiles – merging traditional textile materials with electronics and smart materials.

                                   Built a material resource library for the institute to generate interest and awareness among the students and industry about                                                    Interactive textiles.

                                   Taught undergraduate students beginners course in Smart Textiles and generated awareness and interest in the field both in and                                            outside of the institute.

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Oct '05 – Mar '09 - Freelance Designer, Bangalore, India

                                   Textile Design work for various print and embroidery companies.

                                   Designed choir uniform for Christ University, Bangalore, India.

                                   Designed silk upholstery collection for the Heimtextil 2006, Germany for Ethnic Silk Mills.

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Aug '02 – Aug '03 - Freelance Designer, Bangalore, India

                                   Conducted an exhibition of hand painted silk batik scarves. Learned the craft from local batik craftsmen in Malaysia.

                                   Designed a range of bed linen collection for the Heimtextil 2004, Germany for LinenCraft
 

Jan '02 - Jun '02 - Art teacher and Dorm Assistant, Hebron School, Ooty, India





Other Projects



Threads of a Desert Wind – studied and compiled the life and textile craft of three craftsmen in Oman. Very little documentation has been done of these communities and their dying crafts. Interviewed on local radio station for creating an awareness of these crafts in December 2000. Seeking support to publish this documentation as a book.

 

Educational Qualification



2003 – 2004  Masters in Arts in Textiles and Fashion
                         Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

1998 – 2001  Diploma in Textile Design
                         Srishti School of Art and Design, Bangalore, India

 

MA Research



Weaving light - explored the merging of electronic textiles with traditional Indian motifs by developing a prototype of fabric woven with fibre optics. Specifically, in the dark, the fabric lights up and the lights move to give the illusion of woven designs floating over the surface. Project partly sponsored by Mitsubishi Rayon Ltd.

 

Conferences and Workshops

 

IT+T -  Rethinking textiles and technology in Design, Srishti School of Art, Design  and Technology,– conceived and organised the symposium, presented the paper ‘Smart and Interactive Textiles in India ‘. Bangalore, India, December 2006.​



Design Thinking workshop conducted by Prof Naohito Okude, CUTE Center, Singapore Design Festival 2009.



NeoCraft : Indian textile crafts shaping the future of Interactive textiles and technology. Textures 2010 – Keynote speaker, Art as Research, Society of Literature, Science and Arts (SLSA EU chapter), Riga, Latvia, June 2010



The Flexible Space of Interface and New Media and Machines – Panelist, International Communication Association, Singapore, June 2010. 



Ars Electronica 2010, Future Factory talks – Presentation, September 2010



Smart Textiles and Movement workshop - in collaboration with Jayachandran Palazhy, Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts. The Swedish School of Textiles. October 2011



Aesthetics of a Circuit workshop - School of Design and Craft - HDK, Gothenburg, Sweden, January 2012
          - Sami Craft, Kiruna, Sweden. January 2012
          - Helsingland Craft, Hudisvall, Sweden, May 2012



Keepin' it Real - Organic, Natural or Reality Based Interactions? - Panelist at Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interactions 2012 (TEI'12).  Kingston, Canada, February 2012.



Touch and Feel Soft Hardware workshop. TEI'12, Kingston, Canada. February 2012.



3D Printing and Textiles - Crafting the Future. Dutch Electronic Arts Festival, Rotterdam, Netherlands, May 2012.

 

Performance Capture, Design and Innovation Workshop, MIT Media Lab India Initiative, Mumbai, January 2014.

 

Welspun Smart Textiles, Design and Innovation Workshop, MIT Media Lab India Initiative, Mumbai, January 2015.

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Digital Futures : e-textiles, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, November 2016

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Connected Fabrics Of Our Everyday Lives, IDTechEx, San Jose, November 2016

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Augmented Reality and Storytelling, Panelist at Family Tech, Consumer Electronic Show, Las Vegas, January 2017

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Apparels? Panelist at Smart Textiles and Sensors, Wearable Technology, London, March 2017

 

Exhibitions

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Forfest i Domkrykan - group art exhibiton, Domkyrkan, Gothenburg, Sweden. March     2012.



Mili John Tharakan, Roshan Lalintha Peiris, Yan Yan Cao, Owen Noel Newton Fernando, Hideaki Nii, Adrian David Cheok, Ambikraf: Breathing life into traditional textiles, Creative Showcase, ACE 2010, Taipei, Taiwan. 17-19 November 2010



Kasun Karunanayaka, Jeffery Tzu Kwan Valino Kho, Jose Sepulveda, Mili John Tharakan, Manoj Krishnan, Adrian David Cheok. Liquid Interfaces – A New Creative Entertainment Technology, ACE 2010, Taipei, Taiwan. 17-19 November 2010



AmbiKraf: Interactive textile byobu screen ,  Mili John Tharakan, Roshan Peiris. Future Factory Exhibition - ARS Electronica 2010, Linz, Austria. 2 – 7th September 2010



AmbiKraf: Interactive textile byobu screens - Mili John Tharakan, Roshan Peiris.
Open Space exhibition, ICA 2010 (International Communication Association), New Media Installations, Singapore, 23 - 25 June 2010.



AmbiKraf: An embedded non-emissive and fast changing wearable display, SIGGRAPH 2009 Emerging Technology Demos, New Orleans, Louisiana, 4 - 6 August 2009.



Ambikraf, Interactive Tokyo Symposium 2009.



Material Texts’ – group art exhibition, Kashi Gallery, Cochin, India. January 2009.
 
LAND’ -  The Tapestry Foundation of Victoria Award Exhibition, Canberra, Australia.    9th April – 7th May 2008.

 

Publications



Roshan Lalintha Peiris,  Mili John Tharakan,  Owen Noel Newton Fernando,  Adrian     David Cheok. Ambikraf: non emissive, ubiquitious textile display. Multimedia and Tools     Application, Springer Science and Business Media. Online publication June 2012.



Ylva Fernaeus, Anna Vallgarda, Mili John Tharakan, Anders Lundstrom. Touch and Feel    Soft Hardware. In Proceedings of Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interactions 2012,    Kingston, Canada, 19-22 February 2012.



Mili John Tharakan. NeoCraft: Exploring Smart Textiles in the Light of Traditional Textile     Craft, In Proceedings of Ambience '11, Boras, Sweden. 28 - 30 November, 2012.



Mili John Tharakan, Jose Sepulveda, Wendy Thun, Adrian David Cheok. Poetic      Communication: Interactive Carpet for Subtle Family Communication and        Connectedness. In Proceedings of International Joint Conference on Ambient      Intelligance, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 16-18 November 2011. Computer Science     Springer LNCS Vol 7040/2011.



Roshan Lalintha Peiris,  Mili John Tharakan,  Owen Noel Newton Fernando,  Adrian     David Cheok. AmbiKraf: A nonemissive fabric display for fast changing textile animation.    IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing  (EUC-2011) Melbourne, Australia. 24-26 October, 2011.

Roshan Lalintha Peiris,  Mili John Tharakan,  Owen Noel Newton Fernando,  Adrian     David Cheok. AmbiKraf: a ubiquitous non-emissive color changing fabric display.      In Proceedings of 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future    Media Environments, Tampere, Finland. 28-30 September, 2011.



Mili John Tharakan, Naohito Okude, Adrian David Cheok, NeoCraft : Indian textile crafts shaping the future of Interactive textiles and technology, Art as Research . Journal for Transdisciplinary Research on Arts, Science, Technology and Society. Acoustic Space No.9. July 2011.

Koh, J. T. K. V., Karunanayaka, K., Sepulveda, J., Tharakan, M. J., Krishnan, M., and     Cheok, A. D. 2011. Liquid interface: A malleable, transient, direct-touch interface. ACM     Computer. Entertainment. Vol 9, No. 2, Article 7 , July 2011.

  
Roshan Lalintha Peiris, Mili John Tharakan, Owen Noel Newton Fernando, Hideaki Nii, Adrian David Cheok. Ambikraf – Ubiquitous fabric display. poster at International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistance 2010 Adelaide, Australia. 1-3rd December 2010.

Roshan Lalintha Peiris, Mili John Tharakan, Owen Noel Newton Fernando, Hideaki Nii,
Adrian David Cheok. Ambikraf: An Ambient textile display. Workshop on Semantic Ambient Media Experience (SAME2010) Malaga, Spain. 10-12 November 2010. 1st International Joint Conference on Ambient Intelligence.

Mili John Tharakan, Roshan Lalintha Peiris, Yan Yan Cao, Owen Noel Newton Fernando, Hideaki Nii, Adrian David Cheok, Ambikraf: Breathing life into traditional textiles, In Proceedings of ACE 2010, Taipei, Taiwan. 17-19 November 2010



 Jeffery Koh, Kasun Karunanayaka, Jose Sepulveda, Mili John Tharakan , Manoj Krishnan, Adrian David Cheok, Liquid Interfaces – A Malleable, Transient, Direct-Touch Interface, New Creative Entertainment Technology, In Proceedings of ACE 2010, Taipei, Taiwan. 17-19 November 2010



Hooman Aghaebrahimi Samani, Adrian David Cheok, Mili John Tharakan, Jeffrey Koh, Newton Fernando, ‘A Design Process for Lovotics’, Third International conference on Human-robot personal relationship, Leiden, Netherlands, 22-24 June 2010, To be published in Springer LNICST series.



Roshan Lalinta Peiris, Adrian David Cheok, James Keng Soon The, Owen Noel Newton Fernando, Wen Yinggian, Andre Lim, Pan Yi, Doros Polydorou, Kian Peng Ong, Mili John Tharakan, 2009. AmbiKraf: An embedded non-emmisive and fast changing wearable display. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2009 Emerging Technology Demos (New Orleans, Louisiana, August 4-6, 2009). SIGGRAPH ‘09

Peiris, R. L., Cheok, A. D., Teh, J. K., Fernando, O. N., Tharakan, M., and Hoogendoorn, K. 2009. AmbiKraf: An embedded non-emissive and fast changing fabric display. In Smart Textile Salon 2009, Ghent, Belgium, September 25, 2009.





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Awards and Patents



Gold Award for Liquid Interface - Creative Showcase, ACE 2010, Taipei, Taiwan. 19th November 2010



Nokia UbiMedia MindTrek Awards 2010 – Honorary mention for AmbiKraf. 7th October 2010



Liquid Interface/Button: A Malleable Interface Using Direct Interaction for 3D Representation

US Provisional Application No. 61/382,374 filed on 13th September, 2010



An Embedded Non-emissive and Fast Changing Fabric Display
US Provisional Application No. 61/301,844 filed on 5th February 2010

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