Oral health directly influences children's overall well-being, yet pervasive dental anxiety has become an unavoidable barrier to pediatric dental care.While behavior management proves more effective than environmental or equipment improvements in reducing pediatric dental anxiety while improving treatment understanding and oral health awareness, its time-intensive nature often conflicts with dentists' demanding workloads.Through formative research, we proposed a structured combination of behavior management techniques within dental waiting rooms, employing tangible interactions to create a comprehensive anxiety relief system for children aged 5-10 years.The system encompasses two core processes, dental caries treatment and caries prevention.We conducted the validation experiment and pilot study to refine the system.Then we deployed a user study involving 32 child-parent groups.The results demonstrated that the system effectively alleviates children's dental anxiety, prepares them for dental visits, promotes parent-child interaction, and supports children's participation.

CHI ’25, April 26–May 01, 2025, Yokohama, Japan

CHI ’25, Yokohama, Japan

The advent of conductive thermoplastic filaments and multi-material 3D printing has made it feasible to create interactive 3D printed objects. Yet, challenges arise due to the volume constraints of desktop 3D printers and the high resistive characteristics of current conductive materials, making the fabrication of large-scale or highly conductive interactive objects can be daunting. We propose E-Joint, a novel fabrication pipeline for 3D printed objects utilizing mortise and tenon joint structures combined with a copper plating process. The segmented pieces and joint structures are customized in software along with integrated circuits. Then electroplate them for enhanced conductivity. We designed four distinct electrified joint structures in the experiment and evaluated the practical feasibility and effectiveness of fabricating pipes. By constructing three applications with those structures, we verified the usability of E-Joint in making large-scale interactive objects and showed the path to a more integrated future for manufacturing.

Laser cutting revolutionizes the creation of personal-fabricated prototypes. These objects can have transformable properties by adopting different materials and be interactive by integrating electronic circuits. However, circuits in laser-cut objects always have limited movements, which refrains laser cutting from achieving interactive prototypes with more complex movable functions like mechanisms. We propose MechCircuit, a design and fabrication pipeline for making mechanical-electronical objects with laser cutting. We leverage the neodymium magnet’s natures of magnetism and conductivity to integrate electronics and mechanical structure joints into prototypes. We conduct the evaluation to explore technological parameters and assess the practical feasibility of the fabrication pipeline. And we organized a user-observing workshop for non-expert users. Through the outcoming prototypes, the result demonstrates the feasibility of MechCircuit as a useful and inspiring prototyping method.

The amount and quality of mathematical language in the family are positively associated with promoting children’s mathematical abilities. However, mathematical language in many families is poor. Through need-finding investigation, we developed MathKingdom, a voice-agent-based game that helps children aged 4–7 learn and use rich, accurate mathematical language (e.g., mathematical expressions related to measurement, sequence, patterns). The game has four flows, in which users can wake up, transform, decorate, and perform as their avatars, as well as practice basic mathematical vocabulary, mathematical single sentences, coherent mathematical statements, and free expression. We refined the system design through wizard-of-oz testing and then evaluated it with 18 families. The results showed that MathKingdom effectively engaged children, enhanced their mathematical language skills and mathematical abilities, and encouraged parent-child conversations about math.