An Intelligent and Interactive Carpet Role of Design in A Textile Innovation Project

This paper presents an ongoing innovation project on the development of an intelligent and interactive carpet called PeR+, short for Perception Rug Plus. This design-research project is a collaboration between an international flooring company, DESSO, and the Department of Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology. The background of the project is first introduced and the reasons for both parties to invest in this project are elaborated. From an academic perspective, the design-researchers show the feasibility and market value of their findings from a broader design-research project. In this broader design-research project, they have designed and built the PeR, an earlier iteration of the PeR+, which serves as a tangible starting point for the joint project. DESSO is interested in design driven and functional textile innovation. The project portrays the essential role that designers have in bringing traditional industries, (like the textile industries) high tech developments and user aspects together. Furthermore the project shows that there is the need for (1) keeping the project open, (2) taking on a multidisciplinary approach, and (3) applying making and doing in the process.