LiftTiles: Constructive Building Blocks for Prototyping Room-scale Shape-changing Interfaces

Large-scale shape-changing interfaces have great potential, but creating such systems requires substantial time, cost, space, and efforts, which hinders the research community to explore interactions beyond the scale of human hands. We introduce modular inflatable actuators as building blocks for prototyping room-scale shape-changing interfaces. Each actuator can change its height from 15cm to 150cm, actuated and controlled by air pressure. Each unit is low-cost (8 USD), lightweight (10 kg), compact (15 cm), and robust, making it well-suited for prototyping room-scale shape transformations. Moreover, our modular and reconfigurable design allows researchers and designers to quickly construct different geometries and to explore various applications. This paper contributes to the design and implementation of highly extendable inflatable actuators, and demonstrates a range of scenarios that can leverage this modular building block.Comment: TEI 202

Sketched Reality: Sketching Bi-Directional Interactions Between Virtual and Physical Worlds with AR and Actuated Tangible UI

This paper introduces Sketched Reality, an approach that combines AR sketching and actuated tangible user interfaces (TUI) for bidirectional sketching interaction. Bi-directional sketching enables virtual sketches and physical objects to "affect" each other through physical actuation and digital computation. In the existing AR sketching, the relationship between virtual and physical worlds is only one-directional -- while physical interaction can affect virtual sketches, virtual sketches have no return effect on the physical objects or environment. In contrast, bi-directional sketching interaction allows the seamless coupling between sketches and actuated TUIs. In this paper, we employ tabletop-size small robots (Sony Toio) and an iPad-based AR sketching tool to demonstrate the concept. In our system, virtual sketches drawn and simulated on an iPad (e.g., lines, walls, pendulums, and springs) can move, actuate, collide, and constrain physical Toio robots, as if virtual sketches and the physical objects exist in the same space through seamless coupling between AR and robot motion. This paper contributes a set of novel interactions and a design space of bi-directional AR sketching. We demonstrate a series of potential applications, such as tangible physics education, explorable mechanism, tangible gaming for children, and in-situ robot programming via sketching.Comment: UIST 202

ShapeBots: Shape-changing Swarm Robots

We introduce shape-changing swarm robots. A swarm of self-transformable robots can both individually and collectively change their configuration to display information, actuate objects, act as tangible controllers, visualize data, and provide physical affordances. ShapeBots is a concept prototype of shape-changing swarm robots. Each robot can change its shape by leveraging small linear actuators that are thin (2.5 cm) and highly extendable (up to 20cm) in both horizontal and vertical directions. The modular design of each actuator enables various shapes and geometries of self-transformation. We illustrate potential application scenarios and discuss how this type of interface opens up possibilities for the future of ubiquitous and distributed shape-changing interfaces.Comment: UIST 201

Interactive Fabrication Technologies for Improvisational Prototyping

フィールド・レビューField Revie

Organic Primitives: Synthesis and Design of pH-Reactive Materials using Molecular I/O for Sensing, Actuation, and Interaction

© 2017 ACM. In this paper we present Organic Primitives, an enabling toolbox that expands upon the library of input-output devices in HCI and facilitates the design of interactions with organic, fluid-based systems. We formulated color, odor and shape changing material primitives which act as sensor-actuators that convert pH signals into human-readable outputs. Food-grade organic molecules anthocyanin, vanillin, and chitosan were employed as dopants to synthesize materials which output a spectrum of colors, degrees of shape deformation, and switch between odorous and non-odorous states. We evaluated the individual output properties of our sensor-actuators to assess the rate, range, and reversibility of the changes as a function of pH 2-10. We present a design space with techniques for enhancing the functionality of the material primitives, and offer passive and computational methods for controlling the material interfaces. Finally, we explore applications enabled by Organic Primitives under four contexts: environmental, cosmetic, edible, and interspecies

FolDTronics Demo: Creating 3D objects with integrated electronics using foldable honeycomb structures

We present FoldTronics, a 2D-cutting based fabrication technique to integrate electronics into 3D folded objects. The key idea is to cut and perforate a 2D sheet to make it foldable into a honeycomb structure using a cutting plotter; before folding the sheet into a 3D structure, users place the electronic components and circuitry onto the sheet. The fabrication process only takes a few minutes enabling users to rapidly prototype functional interactive devices. The resulting objects are lightweight and rigid, thus allowing for weight-sensitive and force-sensitive applications. Finally, due to the nature of the honeycomb structure, the objects can be folded flat along one axis and thus can be efficiently transported in this compact form factor. We describe the structure of the foldable sheet, and present a design tool that enables users to quickly prototype the desired objects. We showcase a range of examples made with our design tool, including objects with integrated sensors and display elements.Japan Science and Technology Corporation. Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology research funding program (Grant no. JPMJER1501

Creating 3D Objects with Integrated Electronics Using Foldable Honeycomb Structures

© 2019 Association for Computing Machinery. We present FoldTronics, a 2D-cutting based fabrication technique to integrate electronics into 3D folded objects. The key idea is to cut and perforate a 2D sheet to make it foldable into a honeycomb structure using a cutting plotter; before folding the sheet into a 3D structure, users place the electronic components and circuitry onto the sheet. The fabrication process only takes a few minutes enabling users to rapidly prototype functional interactive devices. The resulting objects are lightweight and rigid, thus allowing for weight-sensitive and force-sensitive applications. Finally, due to the nature of the honeycomb structure, the objects can be folded flat along one axis and thus can be efficiently transported in this compact form factor. We describe the structure of the foldable sheet, and present a design tool that enables users to quickly prototype the desired objects. We showcase a range of examples made with our design tool, including objects with integrated sensors and display elements