Thank you for tuning in everyone!
I am Eleni Economidou from the Center for Human-Computer Interaction, of the University
of Salzburg.
This is a video presentation on our our pictorial KINEIN: a making guide on indefinitely deploying
a kinetic display as a research product.
I am presenting on behalf of my co-authors: Moritz, Alina, Martin and Manfred.
The story of KINEIN starts in 2018 when we first got in contact with the architect of
an integration school for deaf, hearing-impaired and hearing students and staff.
Prior to KINEIN we conducted field work at the school to gather a deeper understanding
of the context and the technological needs.
Together with the architect, headmaster and other stakeholders we took the challenging
decision to indefinitely deploy three research products at the school’s entrance hall.
The three installations are meant to unveil a riddle every day which visitors and the
school occupants can unravel and experience.
In this pictorial we focus on KINEIN, the kinetic display that decorates the room’s
left wall and consists of 25 columns of 25 black and white rotating tiles.
We contribute design knowledge on the combination of robustness and durability for indefinite
deployment and large, physical scale
Kinetic displays are frequenting both media-art exhibitions and research papers, and works
such as Daniel Rosin’s interactive mirrors or flip-dot displays are not a rare sight
anymore.
So what is special then about KINEIN?
KINEIN is a large-scale research product meant to be indefinitely deployed in a real-life
setting.
Its motion-mechanism construction is based on sequential tile rotation rather than pin-based
actuation.
Its design also enables the audience to alter the displayed image manually by physically
rotating its tiles.
And this is the design process we followed, which I will walk you through in detail in the next
slides.
Initially we created concept sketches to refine the concept.
Based on that, we build a low fidelity prototype and a digital simulator to test the functionality
of the system, and we explored physical forms for the tiles.
We developed technical drawings and we the outsourced manufacturing.
We assembled the motor cases with off-the shelf components and custom-made pcbs.
We put together the tile rods at our research facilities and troubleshooted the code and
the motor-case assembly.
We transported the columns and motor-cases on site where we deployed the entire system
indefinitely.
Of course the process was not so linear, but rather looked a bit like this in the end since there
was a lot of bug-fixing and troubleshooting.
We created several concept sketches and scenario illustrations to communicate our ideas and
receive feedback from the project’s stakeholders.
This back and fourth correspondence ensured that our ideas were understood and embraced.
A key aspect of our column based design is the concealment of the mechanism, leaving
it up to the audience to interpret how the rotation of the tiles works.
Another of our fundamental ideas was that the audience should be able to alter the displayed
image by tangibly interacting with it and rotating its tiles.
KINEIN’s motion-mechanism is based on sequential tile rotation.
A simple and cost-effective approach where instead of having one motor for every tile,
we place all the tiles on a single column rotating them as many times as needed to achieve
the desired image.
Every tile has this interlocking form factor, a protrusion on the top side that allows it
to carry the next tile when it is rotating and thus, change the colour.
To test this mechanism, we built a lo-fi prototype and a digital simulator in Processing.
This short clip demonstrates sequential rotation.
First the system is set to the starting position which has a top white tile followed by tiles
with alternating colours.
To rotate a given tile to black the driving mechanism would have to rotate 180 degrees
by as many times as the tile’s position on the column.
For example, to set the last tile to black the mechanism will have to rotate clockwise 25
times by 180 degrees.
Likewise, to rotate a given tile to white the driving mechanism would have to rotate
180 degrees by as many times as the tile’s position on the column minus one.
Following the initial lego model, we built a series of prototypes with various different
protrusions to test our concept.
The final tile consists of two metal pieces; a black and a white one.
The two pieces are held together by the metal rod that passes through them.
The manufacturing of the final tiles was outsourced to be cut out of 1.5mm aluminium sheets, bent,
and powder-coated.
The visible implementation of KINEIN consists of a 2 meters and 70 centimetres square steel
frame of a 10 by 10 centimetres profile and 625 black and white tiles.
So let’s zoom-in into the frame where the electronic and mechanical components are placed.
The 25 motor cases with custom column-control circuits are connected via I-squared-C protocol.
They communicate with the Arduino Uno which has an ethernet shield.
The microprocessor is connected to the central power supply and a voltage and amperage meter
via I-squared-C protocol to monitor voltage and current draw.
We’ve also installed a WiFi access point to remotely control KINEINs operation through
a web-server, built on Arduino, which can also be used to monitor, configure and send daily
image data.
To achieve the required rotation sequence for every column, we designed a tailored motor
case and control electronics.
The motor cases allow transmission from the stepper motor to the top tile and at the same
time are load bearing elements to the fixed 5mm rods with all 25 tiles.
Over the rod we placed a short pipe with pointy ends that acts as a transmission sleeve.
It is mounted to the case with ball-bearings.
A timing belt and a set of pulleys connected to the motor, rotate this pipe which is connected
to the top tile through the pointy ends.
An encoding wheel allows to precisely position the motor and the first tile at starting position.
By having independent control circuits per column we offload this task from the microcontroller,
which, in effect increases its performance and stability.
Using an established platform and off-the-shelf components lowers the implementation costs
and ensures repairability.
Here are some video excerpts of the in-house assembly.
In this first video clip, we are assembling the 25 columns on site.
Specifically, we are passing all 25 tiles on each metal rod and fastening them in place
using adjustable metal spacers and nylon rings.
Here we are suspending a single column for testing at our facilities.
And finally, for the on-site implementation, we transported all the tiles, motor-cases and
other components and assembled them on-site with the use of scaffolding and ladders.
The final piece is made out of approximately 3400 individual components.
And here is a final clip, KINEIN implemented at the entrance hall of the school.
You can now get a sense of how all of its inner workings presented earlier come together.
The final tiles are rotating to construct a pixelated image.
We have derived a set of implications from designing large scale interfaces.
Along with the physical elements, the steps in the design process scale up too.
The time-frames and deliverables for both building construction and interaction design
processes need to be clearly aligned beforehand.
The responsibilities are directly affected by the undertaking, such as cost, safety issues,
and time.
The task of prototyping changes, as early small prototypes of various parts of the design
are more useful to test things out before the final implementation.
There is a need to ensure there is enough space at the facilities for a period of time
to not only construct but also test and troubleshoot the final interface.
When indefinitely deploying large scale artefacts: - There is a series of building regulations
such interfaces needs to conform to like health and safety and fire regulations.
In addition, there is a need to negotiate and discuss with building experts on these
matters.
- The end-product has to be of higher quality and robustness than typical HCI research prototypes
which subsequently means that the selected physical components have to have these characteristics.
To close off, a few reflection points on KINEIN as a research product.
Due to the large scale, KINEIN is not portable as other research products, therefore it requires
strong financial and other commitments as well as trust by the responsible entities.
According to the definition, "a high quality of finish allows research products to be seen
as what they are".
KINEIN resembles a commercial product because it was built with the same manufacturing processes
as commercial products.
However the industrial manufacturing impacts the design process as iterations are time
consuming and costly.
KINEIN was designed with embeddedness in mind.
In contract with other research products, the design is very site-specific and its installation
is permanent.
Its fit can not only be considered through today’s perspective but aspire towards atemporality.
We followed the greyscale colour palette and the clean, minimalistic style of other elements
in the space.
Its materials also adhere to the fire and health and safety standards.
When it comes to independence, we employed longevity-supporting strategies that go beyond
selecting long-lasting materials, and established components.
The tiles can be rotated over and over with minimal expected wear for the next decade.
Going beyond the requirement of little to no maintenance we put attention on maintainability
which means implementing ways others could maintain KINEIN in the future.
A big thank you to everyone who contributed to this work, and thank you so much for watching,
we are happy to take any questions, either on zoom or discord or by email.