Hi everyone, my name is Junyi Zhu
I am currently a PhD student at MIT CSAIL, HCIE Group...
... working with Prof. Stefanie Mueller
My research focuses on creating interactive objects ...
...for which all functions are directly integrated with the object form and fabricated in one-go
Today, I am presenting my new project,
a 3D Design Environment for Object Form and Electronic Function, MorphSensor
MorphSensor is a 3D electronic design tool that enables designers to ...
...morph existing sensor modules of pre-defined two-dimensional shape
...into free-form electronic component arrangements
...that better integrate with the three- dimensional shape of a physical prototype
Let me show you the MorphSensor in more details …
MorphSensor contains two parts
A 3D electronics design tool...
...for designing electronic function in the context of physical prototype
and a fabrication pipeline
to rapidly fabricate the resulting morphed sensor
Let me walk you through the MorphSensor system
via an interactive soldering iron
that detects the level of smoke in the air by an air quality sensor
and warns you with the bad air quality so that you can take a break
Let's look at the MorphSensor 3D Editor
we will start by importing the sensor module in this case, an air quality sensor
The system extracts the sensor information from its board and corresponding schematic file
and then subsequently creates the board and the individual electronic components as a set of 3D models
we want to measure air quality
and since soldering fumes are created at the tip of the soldering iron
we want to place the air quality sensor close to the soldering tip
MorphSensor helps me with this by highlighting which part on the module does the actual sensing
we can snap and arrange individual electronic components on the 3D model
using common 3D editing tools
After placing the ative sensing part (of the air quality sensor)
we want to move all the remaining passive components onto the prototype
for which we can use MorphSensor's auto-placement function
During the entire editing process
MorphSensor maintains logic connectivity by tracking the logically connected pin locations
and displays a ‘3D’ air wire between the pins along the prototype geometry in real-time
After positioning the electronic components
we will connect physical wires based on logic air wires
Once wire is drawn to the pins at the end of the air wire
it is complete and the connection is established
we will go ahead and finish the wiring
we can still freely change the component location and rotation at any given time
we are able to expand the design anytime by importing additional sensors and components
in this case, a microcontroller for programming the air quality sensor
and a LED to display the warning signal
same as before, we will snap the newly added components onto the model
and connect them with the remaining circuit
when wires cross
MorphSensor automatically adds a wire jumper
allowing both wires to be placed sufficiently
we will then export the design for fabrication
using a lasso tool
for marking up the desired area on the prototype
MorphSensor then converts the 3D circuit into a 2D projection via surface unrolling
and exports it as an .svg file
Let's look at how we fabricate the morphed sensors
we developed a rapid fabrication technique
that based on the CircuitStickers
and extend it with pre-fabricated PCB footprints
the BigFoots
which are essentially slightly bigger SMD footprints for better connection
we will first inkjet print the exported circuit
put some double-sided tape on the back for later object attachment
take out the BigFoots
solder the corresponding components onto the BigFoots
then we will attach the ECATT tape to the back of the BigFoots
which are conductive only through the Z-axis
attach the components to the circuit
And there you have it! The fabricated morphed sensor
go ahead and cut out the sensor
and attach to the object
Voila! there is your interactive object prototype rapidly built
Here are some of the interactive objects that we built using MorphSensor system
Please look at the paper for more details
if you liked this work, I also presented a paper at CHI 2020 this year on CurveBoards
3D breadboards that serves as Prototyping Platform for (designing) functions in the Context of Object Form
With that, I would like to conclude my super rapid 5-min talk
and open for any questions you may have
This project is found by National Science Foundation
Thank you :)