UIST2015: Fabrication 2: Flexible and Printed Electronics

Foldio: Digital Fabrication of Interactive and Shape-­Changing Objects With Foldable Printed Electronics

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2807494

- folding
- edge touch slider
- shape sensing/control open//close
- actuation

Foldios are foldable interactive objects with embedded input sensing and output capabilities. Foldios combine the advantages of folding for thin, lightweight and shape-changing objects with the strengths of thin-film printed electronics for embedded sensing and output. To enable designers and end-users to create highly custom interactive foldable objects, we contribute a new design and fabrication approach. It makes it possible to design the foldable object in a standard 3D environment and to easily add interactive high-level controls, eliminating the need to manually design a fold pattern and low-level circuits for printed electronics. Second, we contribute a set of printable user interface controls for touch input and display output on folded objects. Moreover, we contribute controls for sensing and actuation of shape-changeable objects. We demonstrate the versatility of the approach with a variety of interactive objects that have been fabricated with this framework.

uniMorph - Fabricating Thin Film Composites for Shape-Changing Interfaces

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2807472

3 components:
-environmental actuation
-computational control
-sensing and control

Researchers have been investigating shape-changing interfaces, however technologies for thin, reversible shape change remain complicated to fabricate. uniMorph is an enabling technology for rapid digital fabrication of customized thin-film shape-changing interfaces. By combining the thermoelectric characteristics of copper with the high thermal expansion rate of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, we are able to actuate the shape of flexible circuit composites directly. The shape-changing actuation is enabled by a temperature driven mechanism and reduces the complexity of fabrication for thin shape-changing interfaces. In this paper we describe how to design and fabricate thin uniMorph composites. We present composites that are actuated by either environmental temperature changes or active heating of embedded structures and provide a systematic overview of shape-changing primitives. Finally, we present different sensing techniques that leverage the existing copper structures or can be seamlessly embedded into the uniMorph composite. To demonstrate the wide applicability of uniMorph, we present several applications in ubiquitous and mobile computing.

Printem: Instant Printed Circuit Boards with Standard Office Printers & Inks

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2807511

Printem film, a novel method for the fabrication of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) for small batch/prototyping use, is presented. Printem film enables a standard office inkjet or laser printer, using standard inks, to produce a PCB: the user prints a negative of the PCB onto the film, exposes it to UV or sunlight, and then tears-away the unneeded portion of the film, leaving-behind a copper PCB. PCBs produced with Printem film are as conductive as PCBs created using standard industrial methods. Herein, the composition of Printem film is described, and advantages of various materials discussed. Sample applications are also described, each of which demonstrates some unique advantage of Printem film over current prototyping methods: conductivity, flexibility, the ability to be cut with a pair of scissors, and the ability to be mounted to a rigid backplane.

Capricate: A Fabrication Pipeline to Design and 3D Print Capacitive Touch Sensors for Interactive Objects

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2807503

3D printing is widely used to physically prototype the look and feel of 3D objects. \ Interaction possibilities of these prototypes, however, are often limited to mechanical parts or post-assembled electronics. In this paper, we present Capricate, a fabrication pipeline that enables users to easily design and 3D print highly customized objects that feature embedded capacitive multi-touch sensing. The object is printed in a single pass using a commodity multi-material 3D printer. To enable touch input on a wide variety of 3D printable surfaces, we contribute two techniques for designing and printing embedded sensors of custom shape. The fabrication pipeline is technically validated by a series of experiments and practically validated by a set of example applications. They demonstrate the wide applicability of Capricate for interactive objects.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki