Hi, I'll present MorpheesPlug, a toolkit for prototyping shape-changing interfaces.
My name is Hyunyoung Kim.
I collaborated with Aluna Everitt, Carlos Tejada, Mengyu Zhong and Daniel Ashbrook.
In HCI, we have more and more shape-changing interfaces.
Shape-changing interfaces provide great advantages, such as dynamic affordances.
And they can adapt their shapes according to users’ preferences, bodies, and tasks.
However, there is a big hurdle before having them in our daily life.
Let me give you an example.
I've put an instruction of how to make a shape-changing
interface online.
It got more than 10,000 views, and some people left comments like, "Oh, this is a great project!
I want to build it myself."
But what happened is that I know no one who built it.
this is because it is hard to build shape-changing interfaces.
They have many parts, they need sensors, and actuators.
To build a shape-changing interface, you need to know 3D modeling, fabrication, electronics,
and so on.
Even though you know all of them, you will probably take a lot of iterations
to design and build a working prototype.
This motivated us to build MorpheesPlug, a toolkit to prototype shape-changing interfaces.
MorpheesPlug helps users in three steps:
To express as many shape change features as possible, we chose six shape-changing widgets
from literature
and analyze how they can express features from Morphees+ taxonomy.
Using our plug-in for fusion 360, users can not only customize the widgets, but also combine
the widgets with their own designs.
The software is available online.
Then how can they know how to customize the widgets to have the shape-change they want?
To guide them, we tested how varying the widget parameters affect the resulted shape-change.
Please look at the paper for the detail.
When users like their design, they can print it using off-the-shelf printers and filament.
We used NinjaFlex and successfully printed airtight widgets.
In general, the prints were more airtight when the print speed was low, so that layers
can have more time to stick to each other.
When we increased the number of shells, it also resulted better air-tightness
Lastly, we over extruded the filament for better layer adhesion.
After print, users can connect a tube to the print and simply connected to our actuation
module.
The module is connected to an air compressor and controls air flow through buttons and
software.
Then, what can be applications of MorpheusPlug?
With MorpheesPlug, we built an umbrella pusher that can remind users to take an umbrella.
We also built an anti-rain phone case to help users type on their phone on a rainy day.
A posture-correcting cushion campus users to
remind them to see correctly,
Then, what will be the the next step?
We believe that we need software that can predict the shape-change of MorpheesPlug widgets
before fabrication and actuation.
It should also allow users to design from shape-change features rather than from the
widgets.
Lastly, we need to further investigate fabrication methods to allow more complex shape-change
and high level of interaction.
Thank you so much.