Martijn ten Bhömer

I build bridges between academic research and real-world products. 💡

As an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial Design, Faculty of Design, at the University of Macau, my research is grounded in Research through Design, focusing on smart textiles 👕, wearable technology, and embodied interaction for health and wellbeing. My work has been published at venues including ACM DIS, TEI, and CHI, and in journals such as The Design Journal and the International Journal of Design, supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

Bridging research and industry, I was the co-founder and CTO of femooi: an iF Award-winning beauty-tech company where I led a multidisciplinary R&D team, developed over 20 patents, and brought products from concept to mass production. My products have been exhibited at SXSW, the Swiss National Museum, and Dutch Design Week. My industry experience also includes roles at Microsoft Research, Deutsche Telekom, Bambi Medical, and OMsignal.

My journey has taken me from a PhD in Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology 🇳🇱, through years in Suzhou, China at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), to my current home in Macau 🇲🇴. Outside the lab, you’ll find me exploring on two wheels. 🚲

news

Sep 29, 2026	Coming up in October: ArtClue: A Pneumatic Wearable for Embodied Art Therapy will be shown in the Design Exhibition at UbiComp/ISWC 2026 in Shanghai (13–15 Oct), and Feeling the Story, on AI-personalised haptic storytelling for emotional learning in autistic children, will be presented at EAI PervasiveHealth 2026 in Beijing (15–17 Oct). 🫧
Sep 14, 2026	Our Doctor of Design students have started a collaboration with Melco Resorts & Entertainment on the circular design of retired hotel uniforms. Read more: UM Design × Melco: University–Industry Collaboration for a Sustainable Future. 🧵♻️
Jul 11, 2026	Our poster Exploring a Smart Textile-Based Pressure-Sensitive Skin Fabrication Workflow for Aftermarket Tactile Augmentation of Robotic Platforms was presented at HCI International 2026 in Montreal. 🤖🧶
Jul 06, 2026	Four companion papers were presented at ACM DIS 2026: Being Stone, Probes, Not Pipelines, Interactive Rehab Carpet, and PiscineMobil. 🎉
May 15, 2026	Our paper Soft Central: A Smart Textile-Based E-Health System for Collaborative Aging in Place received the Best Student Paper Award at IEEE CSCWD 2026 in Fuzhou, China. Congratulations to first author Zhaowei Cui! 🏆

selected publications

Probes, Not Pipelines: Towards Construction-Aware Textile Taxonomies

Sheetal Agrawal, Fiona Fan, Eva de Laat, and 2 more authors

In Companion Publication of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, Jun 2026

DOI Bib

@inproceedings{probes-not-pipelines,
  title = {Probes, Not Pipelines: Towards Construction-Aware Textile Taxonomies},
  author = {Agrawal, Sheetal and Fan, Fiona and {de Laat}, Eva and {ten Bhömer}, Martijn and Ko, Joy},
  year = {2026},
  month = jun,
  booktitle = {Companion Publication of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference},
  publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  address = {New York, NY, USA},
  pages = {320--324},
  doi = {10.1145/3802974.3809438},
}

Soft Central: A Smart Textile-Based E-Health System for Collaborative Aging in Place 🏆

Zhaowei Cui, Martijn ten Bhömer, Zhen Wu, and 1 more author

In 2026 29th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (CSCWD), May 2026

DOI Bib

Best Student Paper Award at the 2026 IEEE International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (CSCWD 2026), Fuzhou, China

@inproceedings{soft-central-smart-textile-ehealth,
  title = {Soft Central: A Smart Textile-Based E-Health System for Collaborative Aging in Place},
  author = {Cui, Zhaowei and {ten Bhömer}, Martijn and Wu, Zhen and Sun, Jie},
  year = {2026},
  month = may,
  booktitle = {2026 29th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (CSCWD)},
  publisher = {IEEE},
  doi = {10.1109/CSCWD68734.2026.11582555},
  url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11582555},
}

Design for emotional well-being: A body-centred interactive textile design approach

Mengqi Jiang, Vijayakumar Nanjappan, Martijn ten Bhömer, and 1 more author

The Design Journal, Jan 2026

DOI Bib

@article{design-for-emotional-wellbeing,
  title = {Design for emotional well-being: A body-centred interactive textile design approach},
  author = {Jiang, Mengqi and Nanjappan, Vijayakumar and {ten Bhömer}, Martijn and Liang, Hai-Ning},
  year = {2026},
  month = jan,
  journal = {The Design Journal},
  publisher = {Routledge},
  volume = {29},
  number = {1},
  pages = {54--86},
  doi = {10.1080/14606925.2025.2577951},
}

From monitoring to proactive healthcare: Cases exploring embodiment and AI in smart textile design

Martijn ten Bhömer, Qi Wang, Ziqian Bai, and 3 more authors

The Design Journal, Jan 2026

Abs DOI Bib PDF

This paper examines the integration of smart textiles and artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, focusing on the shift from monitoring to proactive interventions. Through a series of case studies, it identifies generic design challenges and opportunities for proactive healthcare applications and explores design qualities within Smart Textiles, Data & AI, and Embodiment to guide future practices. Findings emphasize the strategic integration of sensors within textile structures, enabling embodied feedback mechanisms, enhancing user engagement and acceptance. Additionally, the study underscores how participatory design approaches can foster long-term health behaviors, reduce burdens on healthcare systems, and enhance patient autonomy by actively involving users and healthcare professionals in the design process. While this work identifies new avenues for proactive and holistic healthcare solutions, it also addresses challenges related to AI-driven data handling, privacy, and ethical concerns, reinforcing the need for transparent, secure, and ethically responsible practices as these technologies advance.
@article{from-monitoring-to-proactive-healthcare, title = {From monitoring to proactive healthcare: Cases exploring embodiment and AI in smart textile design}, author = {{ten Bhömer}, Martijn and Wang, Qi and Bai, Ziqian and Jiang, Mengqi and Qu, Nianchong and Wu, Zhen}, year = {2026}, month = jan, journal = {The Design Journal}, publisher = {Routledge}, volume = {29}, number = {1}, pages = {30--53}, doi = {10.1080/14606925.2025.2512320}, }
Customisable Lower Limb Rehabilitation Carpet for Children with Cerebral Palsy 🏆

Yaxuan Liu, Yijia An, Keming Zhang, and 4 more authors

In Companion Proceedings of the 2024 Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces, Vancouver, BC, Canada, Oct 2024

Abs DOI Bib PDF

Best Poster Award at the ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS Companion ’24), Vancouver, BC, Canada

Cerebral Palsy (CP) affects motor coordination, resulting in slow walking and irregular step and stride lengths. Effective rehabilitation exercises are essential for strengthening leg muscles and enhancing mobility in children with CP. However, traditional hospital rehabilitation programs often lack engagement, making it challenging for children to maintain consistent participation. Additionally, many advanced lower extremity rehabilitation systems remain largely inaccessible. This study introduces an interactive gaming carpet combined with intelligent gait pattern analysis to enhance rehabilitation efforts. The gaming carpet employs visual and auditory cues to train leg coordination and correct stepping patterns, making the exercises more engaging for children. Meanwhile, the intelligent gait analysis system provides therapists with objective data to assess conditions and develop personalized exercise plans. Initial tests indicate that this system effectively engages children and improves adherence to rehabilitation exercises, while also providing accurate progress monitoring. This innovative approach demonstrates significant potential for integrating game-based interventions and data analysis into CP rehabilitation, offering practical solutions for both clinical and home-based settings.
@inproceedings{customisable-lower-limb-rehabilitation-carpet, title = {Customisable Lower Limb Rehabilitation Carpet for Children with Cerebral Palsy}, author = {Liu, Yaxuan and An, Yijia and Zhang, Keming and {ten Bhömer}, Martijn and Bu, Qinglei and Sun, Jie and Chen, Siyuan}, year = {2024}, month = oct, booktitle = {Companion Proceedings of the 2024 Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces}, location = {Vancouver, BC, Canada}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, series = {ISS Companion '24}, doi = {10.1145/3696762.3698050}, isbn = {9798400712784}, }