Using gloves with touchscreens? Ikea's Beröra sewing kit saves the day

posted by Victor H. / Mar 13, 2012, 8:41 AM

Using gloves with touchscreens? Ikea's Beröra sewing kit saves the day

The iPad and iPhone might be the most popular single devices these days, but in the cold, cold winter the joy of interacting with those extremely responsive capacitive touchscreens disappears almost completely. Unless you actually like unlocking and navigating your device with your nose, which is the only physical extremity that we can think of not covered by clothes.

The problem? Capacitive displays require conductivity, and most materials that gloves or mittens are made of are not conductive. Another problem? In winter time Norwegians want to read their IKEA catalog outdoors on their devices. As weird as it sounds, that’s what inspired IKEA to introduce the unique Ikea's Beröra sewing kit with conductive thread.

The Swedish company made 12,000 units of the sewing kit which solved the problem of wearing gloves and interacting with a touchscreen by just adding a single thread.

And yes, we’re aware of the existance of (often too expensive) special gloves for touchscreens. What makes this exciting is that it can be easily implemented in practically every type of gloves. Now, if only those sewing kits didn’t sell out so quickly...

source: PSFK via Gizmodo

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4 Comments

1. SuperAndroidEvo

Posts: 4888; Member since: Apr 15, 2011

lol That's actually pretty cool. Thanks IKEA now I don't have to freeze my hand when I use my tablet or smartphone!

posted on Mar 13, 2012, 9:00 AM 2

2. McLTE

Posts: 922; Member since: Oct 18, 2011

Great concept!! It would be great to see this kind of thing implemented as adhesive patches or something that can be used to stick on.. Those of us who spend money on expensive Gore-tex gloves to keep us dry don't want to ruin the qualities by piercing the glove with a needle. :P