Winter has traditionally is a tough time to use your iPhone or iPad outside while using gloves or mittens. This week, we focus on a product that will make it possible for you to make DIY touch screen items out of just about anything, no sewing required.
Last year, we told you how to make your own touch screen gloves using conductive thread. The DIY sewing project is great, if you know how to sew and use knit gloves. But, what if you want to wear leather gloves, or snow gloves, or even thick construction gloves?
Tony Yu asked the same question. So, he developed a liquid solution using Nanotechnology that would allow you to "paint" a conductive polyamide solution right onto the tips of whatever you want so you can turn your favorite gloves into touch screen capable ones.
The product is called Nanotips and it magically turns any fabric into a touch ready stylus. The conductive polyamide solution mimics the touch of human skin and has been specifically designed to last, even under hard-working circumstances.
Nanotips comes in two different colors, which actually represents two different strengths. Nanotips Blue is designed to only work with fabric. The interlinked nanoparticles soak into the material, creating a conductive chain that bridges the gap between your finger and the touch screen device. The solution dries to a transparent blue shade that is nearly undetectable on even light colored gloves.
If you don't care about the color and need the solution for glove types thicker than knit or thin fabric, you'll want Nanotips Black. This stronger solution disperses the nanoparticles to form a grid-like film on the surface of the material, creating a conductive channel on the fingertip of the glove. This stronger solution does not dry translucent, so keep that in mind when deciding which gloves to apply it to. The black coating will be visible if your gloves are not black.
All you have to do is paint the solution onto the fingertips of your gloves. Ideally, you would only apply it to your first finger and thumb, since those are the digits traditionally used on touch screen devices. However, you could paint your whole glove black if you really wanted to. From the demonstration on the site, you could even paint a pen with it and use it as a touch screen stylus.
Nanotips Blue comes with approximately 15 fingertip application. Nanotips Black is stronger and needs less coverage. Therefore can cover about 30 fingertip applications.
Visit the Nanotips website to order your own solution and you'll be making your own DIY touch screen gloves to last all winter.
