Designing Material Interfaces: Programmable Materials and Tactile Displays

CS547 Human-Computer Interaction Seminars  (Seminar on People, Computers, and Design)

Fridays 12:30-2:20 pm

Gates Building, Rm B01

Open to the public

Designing Material Interfaces: Redefining Interaction through

Programmable Materials and Tactile Displays

Sean Follmer

November 6, 2015

Product design is experiencing a fundamental transition: computation is embedded throughout our environment, from smart thermostats to fitness trackers, and these interactive devices are converging into ever more complex gadgets with countless features. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the car, where users must attend to driving while attempting to control an increasing number of features.

However, designers lack the tools to support all of these new features gracefully in a single interface. Sean Follmer's research considers the importance of form in Interaction Design, and questions the dominance of the screen and the pixel as a solution to this problem of convergence.

Follmer describes how his research in human-computer interaction envisions a world in which devices physically adapt to fit the context of their use. He believes that shape-changing and deformable interfaces can address the lack of physical affordances in today's interactive products and devices.

His work maps out a conceptual space of Dynamic Affordances, describes new interactions with shape changing interfaces motivated by the careful study of users today and expert designers working with physical materials, and begins to evaluate how these new interfaces and devices can help users. In order to prototype these interactions he developed technologies for programming material properties (stiffness, shape, color, etc.) and embedded shape sensing, taking inspiration from fields like Soft Robotics, Material Science, and flexible electronics.

Speaker Bio:

Sean Follmer is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University in the ME Design Group. His Research in Human Computer Interaction explores the design of novel tactile physical interfaces and design tools for digital fabrication and smart devices.

Dr. Follmer received a PhD and a Masters from the MIT Media Lab in 2015 and 2011 (respectively) for his work in human-computer interaction, and a BS in Engineering with a focus on Product Design from Stanford University. He has received numerous awards for his research and design work such as Best Paper Awards and nominations from premier conferences in human-computer interaction (ACM UIST and CHI conferences), Fast Company Innovation By Design Award, Red Dot Design Award, and a Laval Virtual Award

Last modified Tue, 3 Nov, 2015 at 8:47