Preserving the Ndebele dress code through the Internet of Things technologies

Abstract

The Ndebele culture, including its dress code, is at risk of being forgotten as young generations migrate to urban areas, leaving behind their traditions while adopting those that dominate the city. We propose an Internet of Things-based system to help preserve the Ndebele dress culture in a playful manner. The system requires a knowledgeable person to codify the correct combination of previously identified items of clothing and store it in the cloud. This information can subsequently be accessed from a geographically remote location to monitor the arrangement of tangible objects that represent the original pieces of clothing. We demonstrate the tangible interaction component of the proposed system by means of a single example using paper cuttings to represent the culturally correct combination of Ndebele head and neckpieces.