To support children’s food interaction and enhance their understanding of food through morphing food technology, we develop a design exploration through the Research through Design (RtD) methodology. Our exploration integrates four stages: (1) defining design objectives through empathy with stakeholders, (2) investigating morphing food materials to understand their deformation mechanisms, (3) designing and iteratively developing tools based on user feedback, and (4) conducting a workshop-based evaluation. Our design outcome is a toolkit, comprising a morphing food library, trigger tools, and instructional interfaces. The workshop showed that through interaction with morphing food, children learned not only scientific principles but also developed culinary skills, as well as the diversity of food forms and functions. We discussed the detailed findings, insights, and implications for future design.

Biomimicry, a methodology adapted from nature, always inspires optimum solutions and innovative technologies in human history. To get children interested in, excited about, and inspired by biomimicry, we introduce KiPneu, a robotic platform that facilitates biomimicry education through hands-on, solution-oriented learning and a digital learning environment. KiPneu allows children to mimic flexible animal locomotion, like fish swimming or worm squirming, using low-cost building blocks and non-electrical pneumatic actuators. We provide five types of non-electrical tangible valves to adjust robot motion characteristics, such as direction and speed, through engaging tangible programming. Additionally, to facilitate the whole learning process, KiPneu comes with interactive instructional interface that visualize and simulate the pneumatic system. To validate KiPneu’s educational efficacy, we conducted a three-day workshop with 21 children aged 5-12. Pre-and-post surveys revealed KiPneu not only enhanced their understanding of animal locomotion mechanisms but also spurred interest in creative construction using acquired knowledge.

Snap-through instability, like the rapid closure of the Venus flytrap, is gaining attention in robotics and HCI. It offers rapid shape reconfiguration, self-sensing, actuation, and enhanced haptic feedback. However, conventional snap-through structures face limitations in fabrication efficiency, scale, and tunability. We introduce SnapInflatables, enabling safe, multi-scale interaction with adjustable sensitivity and force reactions, utilizing the snap-through instability of inflatables. We designed six types of heat-sealing structures enabling versatile snap-through passive motion of inflatables with diverse reaction and trigger directions. A block structure enables ultra-sensitive states for rapid energy release and force amplification. The motion range is facilitated by geometry parameters, while force feedback properties are tunable through internal pressure settings. Based on experiments, we developed a design tool for creating desired inflatable snap-through shapes and motions, offering previews and inflation simulations. Example applications, including a self-locking medical stretcher, interactive animals, a bounce button, and a large-scale light demonstrate enhanced passive interaction with inflatables.

The field of Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI) has been consistently utilizing kinematic mechanisms to create tangible dynamic interfaces and objects. However, the design and fabrication of these mechanisms are challenging due to complex spatial structures, step-by-step assembly processes, and unstable joint connections resulting from the inevitable matching errors within separated parts. In this paper, we propose an integrated fabrication method for one-step FDM 3D printing (FDM3DP) kinematic mechanisms to create dynamic objects without additional post-processing. We describe the Arch-printing and Support-bridges method, which we call All-in-One Print, that compiles given arbitrary solid 3D models into printable kinematic models as G-Code for FDM3DP. To expand the design space, we investigate a series of motion structures (e.g., rotate, slide, and screw) with multi-stabilities and develop a design tool to help users quickly design such dynamic objects. We also demonstrate various application cases, including physical interfaces, toys with interactive aesthetics and daily items with internalized functions.

Access to computer-aided fabrication tools, such as 3D printing, empowers various craft techniques to democratize the creation of artifacts. To afford new blow molding techniques in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, we make efforts to simplify this challenging handy fabrication and enrich the design space of blow molding by taking advantage of the thermoformability and heat deformability of 3D printed thermoplastics. We propose a novel and democratized blow molding technique, PneuFab, enabled by FDM 3D-printed custom structures and temporal triggering methods. Then we implement and evaluate a design tool that allows users to play with parameters and preview the resulting forms until achieving their desired shapes. Showcasing design spaces including artifacts with complex geometries and tunable stiffness, we hope to expand access and dive into what more the digital blow molding fabrication can be.

Orthoses with electronic functions have emerged as a promising medical product in response to the increasing demand for rehabilitation training, therapy assistance, and health monitoring. However, fabricating this “smart orthosis” often requires long development cycles and exorbitant prices. We introduce E-Orthosis, an integrated fabrication approach with construction toolkits for healthcare professionals to quickly embed electronics in off-the-shelf orthoses with customized functions cost-effectively and time-efficiently. Specifically, we develop components with magnets and pogo pins to support rapid attachment and sustainable use, and textile-based electrodes with snap installation to improve the wearing experience. We also provide a circuit iron tool to apply circuit traces on complex surfaces of orthoses directly and a hot punch tool to embed magnet ports and electrodes. Three application examples, technical evaluations, and expert reviews demonstrate the functionality of E-Orthosis and the potential for democratizing rapid-developed and low-cost smart orthoses for patients.

Bridges are unique structures appeared in fused deposition modeling (FDM) that make rigid prints flexible but not fully explored. This paper presents X-Bridges, an end-to-end workflow that allows novice users to design tunable bridges that can enrich 3D printed objects' deformable and physical properties. Specifically, we firstly provide a series of deformation primitives (e.g. bend, twist, coil, compress and stretch) with three versions of stiffness (loose, elastic, stable) based on parametrized bridging experiments. Embedding the printing parameters, a design tool is developed to modify the imported 3D model, evaluate optimized printing parameters for bridges, preview shape-changing process, and generate the G-code file for 3D printing. Finally, we demonstrate the design space of X-Bridges through a set of applications that enable foldable, resilient, and interactive shape-changing objects.