Most robotics frameworks classify robot appearance into three morphological categories: 1) anthropomorphic, 2) zoomorphic, and 3) technical, while often overlooking a fourth category: artefactinspired robots. In this scoping review, we foreground this underrepresented category, bringing together research that exemplifies it as an alternative design strategy, challenging the assumed inevitability of the three established robot design morphologies. The review offers an overview of artefact-inspired robots, contributing insights on the types of artefacts the robots were inspired by, the output modalities they primarily use to communicate, and an analysis of the visibility of the robotic capabilities based on affordances. Through this work, we invite scholars and practitioners to expand the design space of robot appearance by drawing inspiration from the forms and materialities of domestic objects, moving towards robots that blend more seamlessly into everyday environments.

Audio-frequency induction loops (AFILs) are commonly used as an assistive listening technology for hard-of-hearing individuals. They generate an electromagnetic field proportional to a sound source receivable by hearing aids. Our interactive system, the Sound of Space, is based on AFILs that generate a multi-dimensional soundscape in space. Cochlear implant (CI) listeners and hearing-aids wearers can experience the soundscape through bodily movement, whereas hearing individuals can experience it via a corresponding tangible device. While typical AFIL installations transmit a single sound source, in our interactive system we implement overlapping loops and their interference to locate multiple synchronised audio sources (i.e., corresponding electromagnetic fields) in space. The designed system is installed permanently in an integrative school for deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing students and teachers. In this pictorial, we illustrate our design and implementation process and contribute our learnings of using AFILs as a design material for architectural interactivity.

Large-scale kinetic displays have been present for decades, both as mesmerising art installations and as information displays. In this paper we present KINEIN, a kinetic display whose large-scale and indefinite deployment time distinguish it from the prototypical level of HCI research artefacts. It consists of 625 “tiles” or “pixels” mounted on a 25 x 25 matrix and operates through mechanical movement. Instead of a motor rotating each tile individually, KINEIN has a vertical column system that moves tiles sequentially. Situated at the entrance of a learning environment, KINEIN is not only a playful artefact for children to physically interact with, but also the first encounter for the school's visitors.

The urban realm is currently undergoing a transformation in which cities are being laced with sensors and networks of ever-connected devices. At the same time, more and more novel and advanced materials are finding their way into interaction design and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research, offering us new interaction possibilities. In this half-day online studio, attendees will have the opportunity to exchange and reflect on urban interaction designs for user engagement based on a set of novel, unconventional, or omnipresent materials in urban environments. We will further collect historical, public, and community locations of different social and societal meaning. Participants will be asked to develop hands-on concepts and use cases for the selected locations through a material-centered approach and think about new levels of user-environment engagement to extend and explore the current design space. The formulated concepts and use cases will be recorded in an online collaboration tool with the prospect to publish them as enhances for the new generation of media architecture.