Glazed ceramic is a versatile material that we use every day. In this paper, we present a new approach that instruments existing glazed ceramic ware with interactive electronic circuits. We informed this work by collaborating with a ceramics designer and connected his craft practice to our experience in physical computing. From this partnership, we developed a systematic approach that begins with the subtractive fabrication of traces on glazed ceramic surfaces via the resist-blasting technique, followed by applying conductive ink into the inlaid traces. We capture and detail this approach through an annotated flowchart for others to refer to, as well as externalize the material insights we uncovered through ceramic and circuit swatches. We then demonstrate a range of interactive home applications built with this approach. Finally, we reflect on the process we took and discuss the importance of collaborating with craftspeople for material-driven research within HCI.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580836
The electronics-centered approach to physical computing presents challenges when designers build tangible interactive systems due to its inherent emphasis on circuitry and electronic components. To explore an alternative physical computing approach we have developed a computer vision (CV) based system that uses a webcam, computer, and printed fiducial markers to create functional tangible interfaces. Through a series of design studios, we probed how designers build tangible interfaces with this CV-driven approach. In this paper, we apply the annotated portfolio method to reflect on the fifteen outcomes from these studios. We observed that CV markers offer versatile materiality for tangible interactions, afford the use of democratic materials for interface construction, and engage designers in embodied debugging with their own vision as a proxy for CV. By sharing our insights, we inform other designers and educators who seek alternative ways to facilitate physical computing and tangible interaction design.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580643
Designing with living organisms can offer new perspectives to design research and practices in HCI. In this work, we explore first-person perspectives through design research with Kombucha Scoby, a microbial biofilm. We began with a material design exploration, producing digitally fabricated and crafted samples with Scoby. As we noticed our felt experiences while growing and working with Kombucha Scoby, we shifted towards a reflective autoethnographic study. Through reflective writings, we followed sensory experiences such as hearing the Kombucha fermentation, touching the Scoby while harvesting it, and watching the slow growth of layers over time. Subsequently, we designed "sensory engagement probes”: designed experiments that bring forward new connections and communicate our process, motivations, and tensions that emerged while engaging with the organism. Lastly, we discuss how such design research can inform material design with living matter by creating space to contemplate "life as shared experience" and more-than-human design perspectives.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581276
The tactile experience of fabric is not only a sensory experience but also an affective one. Our choice of fabric products, like clothing, is often based on how they feel. Effectively communicating such experiences is crucial for designing tactile fabric experiences. However, there remains a lack of comprehensive understanding of the fabric tactile and affective experiences, preventing the development of tools to facilitate the communication of these experiences. In this paper, we examine the fabric experiences of 27 participants towards nine cotton samples. We combine qualitative and quantitative methods to create FabTouch, a novel tool to facilitate a dialogue in the design of fabric experiences. We found six phases of fabric touch experiences including fabric touch responses, sensory associations, and emotional responses. Initial feedback from designers suggested that FabTouch could enrich design processes both in practice and in education and can create inspiration for physical and digital design explorations.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581288
Paper circuitry has been extensively explored by HCI researchers as a means of creating interactive objects. However, these approaches focus on creating desktop or handheld objects, and paper as a wearable material remains under-explored. We present SkinPaper, a fabrication approach using silicone-treated washi paper to weave lightweight and easy-to-fabricate on-skin interactions. We adopt techniques from paper weaving and basketry weaving practices to create paper-woven structures that can conform to the body. Our approach uses off-the-shelf materials to facilitate a highly customizable fabrication process. We showcase eight case studies to illustrate our approach's two to three-dimensional forms. To understand the expressiveness of the design space, we conducted a workshop study in which weavers created paper-woven on-skin interactions. We draw insights from the studies to understand the opportunities for paper-woven on-skin interactions.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581034
The digital codification and measurement of food preparation has made strong contributions to HCI food research, whether through ingredient manipulation, workflow management, or recipe interaction. But prior work has shown that technical developments that emphasize precise gourmet practices tend to overlook the importance of cultural knowledge. Drawing on an integrative autobiographical design approach, we describe an open-source hardware toolkit that we developed to examine the process of integrating precision techniques with ritual cooking practices across three recipes: flour skin, rice wine, and doufu. Our work points to the importance of understanding precision as a cultural process with roots in personal and familial experience. We end with a reflection on the particular knowledge-forms that come from cultivating cultural relationships to fabrication processes and their implications for reading digital fabrication processes as meaningfully relational.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580697