Obi-musubi shape design tools for Hanhaba-obi using part gathering

Abstract

A Hanhaba-obi, which is a type of women's obi worn in informal situations, can be tied in various patterns. In this paper, we focus on this obi style and propose three tools based on the idea that an obi-musubi is a collection of parts. First, we propose an obi-musubi editor, which is a software application for creating obi-musubi shape data by combining various parts. Second, we propose the “Kumikae-obi,” with which we can create various obi-musubi shapes by assembling different physical parts. Third, we propose a software application that supports assembling the “Kumikae-obi” to the same form provided by the obi-musubi data created using the editor. This system shows the correspondence between editor and “Kumikae-obi” parts as well as different ways to fold “Kumikae-obi” parts. We describe the algorithm used in this system. Finally, we report on user interviews related to these tools.