Live drills are the gold standard for mass casualty incident (MCI) training but are often too resource-intensive for widespread implementation. Immersive technologies offer a promising alternative, but can they deliver comparable fidelity and effectiveness? Working with a local disaster response academy, this paper investigated the potential of Augmented Virtuality (AV) in MCI training through two phases. First, we conducted a landscape analysis of 126 papers across the virtuality continuum, revealing trends in population, training focus, and evaluation metrics. Second, we empirically evaluated an AV system for mass casualty triage training against traditional role-playing and Virtual Reality (VR) approaches, involving 60 trainees in an operational curriculum. Results indicated that both AV and VR surpassed traditional simulations, with AV’s tactile integration significantly enhancing physical engagement, satisfaction, and triage accuracy. Through the lens of triage, we discussed the broader practical implications of integrating immersive technologies like AV into real-world MCI education.

Given the widespread presence of screens during meals, the notion that digital engagement is inherently incompatible with mindfulness. We demonstrate how the strategic design of digital content can enhance two core aspects of mindful eating: slow eating and food awareness. Our research unfolded in three sequential studies: (1). Zoom Eating Study: Contrary to the assumption that video-watching leads to distraction and overeating, this study revealed that subtle video speed manipulations—can promote slower eating (by 15.31%) and controlled food intake (by 9.65%) while maintaining meal satiation and satisfaction. (2). Co-design workshop: Informed the development of ViFeed, a video playback system strategically incorporating subtle speed adjustments and glanceable visual cues. (3). Field Study: A week-long deployment of ViFeed in daily eating demonstrated its efficacy in fostering food awareness, food appreciation, and sustained engagement. By bridging the gap between ideal mindfulness practices and screen-based behaviors, this work offers insights for designing digital-wellbeing interventions that align with, rather than against, existing habits. © 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

Ceramics provide a rich domain for exploring craft, fabrication, and diverse material textures that enhance tangible interaction.In this work, we explored slip-casting, a traditional ceramic technique where liquid clay is poured into a porous plaster mold that absorbs water from the slip to form a clay body.We adapted this process into an approach we called Resist Slip-Casting.By selectively masking the mold's surface with stickers to vary its water absorption rate, our approach enables makers to create ceramic objects with intricate textured surfaces, while also allowing the customization of a single mold for different outcomes.In this paper, we detail the resist slip-casting process and demonstrate its application by crafting a range of tangible interfaces with customizable visual symbols, tactile features, and decorative elements.We further discuss our approach within the broader conversation in HCI on fabrication machines that promote creative collaboration between humans, materials, and tools.

Electronic composites incorporate computing into physical materials, expanding the materiality of interactive systems for designers. In this research, we investigated acrylic as a substrate for electronics. Acrylic is valued for its visual and structural properties and is used widely in industrial design. We propose e-acrylic, an electronic composite that incorporates electronic circuits with acrylic sheets. Our approach to making this composite is centered on acrylic making practices that industrial designers are familiar with. We outline this approach systematically, including leveraging laser cutting to embed circuits into acrylic sheets, as well as different ways to shape e-acrylic into 3D objects. With this approach, we explored using e-acrylic to design interactive artifacts. We reflect on these applications to surface a design space of tangible interactive artifacts possible with this composite. We also discuss the implications of aligning electronics to an existing making practice, and working with the holistic materiality that e-acrylic embodies.

Paper and touchscreen devices are two common objects found around us, and we investigated the potential of their intersection for tangible interface design. In this research, we developed PaperTouch, an approach to design paper based mechanisms that translate a variety of physical interactions to touch events on a capacitive touchscreen. These mechanisms act as switches that close during interaction, connecting the touchscreen to the device’s ground bus. To develop PaperTouch, we explored different types of paper along with the making process around them. We also built a range of applications to showcase different tangible interfaces facilitated with PaperTouch, including music instruments, educational dioramas, and playful products. By reflecting on this exploration, we uncovered the emerging design dimensions that considers the interactions, materiality, and embodiment of PaperTouch interfaces. We also surfaced the tacit know-how that we gained through our design process through annotations for others to refer to.

Glazed ceramic is a versatile material that we use every day. In this paper, we present a new approach that instruments existing glazed ceramic ware with interactive electronic circuits. We informed this work by collaborating with a ceramics designer and connected his craft practice to our experience in physical computing. From this partnership, we developed a systematic approach that begins with the subtractive fabrication of traces on glazed ceramic surfaces via the resist-blasting technique, followed by applying conductive ink into the inlaid traces. We capture and detail this approach through an annotated flowchart for others to refer to, as well as externalize the material insights we uncovered through ceramic and circuit swatches. We then demonstrate a range of interactive home applications built with this approach. Finally, we reflect on the process we took and discuss the importance of collaborating with craftspeople for material-driven research within HCI.

The logographic nature of Chinese script is a major dissuading factor for learning handwriting. The challenge is the complex psycholinguistic process behind handwriting. Thus, we developed AI-Strokes, a Chinese handwriting learning tool that assists teachers in facilitating students’ handwriting practice in various modalities, and provides personalized feedback for the students. By leveraging a trainable Machine Learning back-end framework, the tool diagnoses and scores students’ handwriting errors. This paper reports a pilot study in a Singapore primary school with an early prototype of AI-Strokes. Two classes of students went through AI-Strokes-based Chinese handwriting lessons (the experimental group) and conventional lessons (the control group) respectively. Pre- and post-tests were administered, and their handwriting processes were analyzed regarding errors in stroke orders, extra/missing strokes, and errors in stroke directions. The results show that the experimental group has yielded significantly better learning gains than the control group. It is posited that the personalized feedback of AI-Strokes has formed a feedback loop to support students’ trial-and-error process in improving their handwriting skills. The multimodal handwriting task design may have also fostered their orthographic awareness through the activation of alternative psycholinguistic pathways during their handwriting lessons.

We present Shape-Haptics, an approach for designers to rapidly design and fabricate passive force feedback mechanisms for physical interfaces. Such mechanisms are used in everyday interfaces and tools, and they are challenging to design. Shape-Haptics abstracts and broadens the haptic expression of this class of force feedback systems through 2D laser cut configurations that are simple to fabricate. They leverage the properties of polyoxymethylene plastic and comprise a compliant spring structure that engages with a sliding profile during tangible interaction. By shaping the sliding profile, designers can easily customize the haptic force feedback delivered by the mechanism. We provide a computational design sandbox to facilitate designers to explore and fabricate Shape-Haptics mechanisms. We also propose a series of applications that demonstrate the utility of Shape-Haptics in creating and customizing haptics for different physical interfaces.

Wind simulations are typically one-off implementations for specific applications. We introduce WindyWall, a platform for creative design and exploration of wind simulations. WindyWall is a three-panel 90-fan array that encapsulates users with 270? of wind coverage. We describe the design and implementation of the array panels, discussing how the panels can be re-arranged, where various wind simulations can be realized as simple effects. To understand how people perceive "wind" generated from WindyWall, we conducted a pilot study of wind magnitude perception using different wind activation patterns from WindyWall. Our findings suggest that: horizontal wind activations are perceived more readily than vertical ones, and that people's perceptions of wind are highly variable-most individuals will rate airflow differently in subsequent exposures. Based on our findings, we discuss the importance of developing a method for characterizing wind simulations, and provide design directions for others using fan arrays to simulate wind.

In the same way that we experience the real-world through a range of senses, experiencing a virtual environment through multiple sensory modalities may augment both our presence within a scenario and our reaction to it. In this paper, we present Season Traveller, a multisensory virtual reality (VR) narration of a journey through four seasons within a mystical realm. By adding olfactory and haptic (thermal and wind) stimuli, we extend traditional audio-visual VR technologies to achieve enhanced sensory engagement within interactive experiences. Using both subjective measures of presence and elicited physiological responses, we evaluated the impact of different modalities on the virtual experience. Our results indicate that 1) the addition of any singular modality improves sense of presence with respect to traditional audio-visual experiences and 2) providing a combination of these modalities produces a further significant enhancement over the aforementioned improvements. Furthermore, insights into participants' psychophysiology were extrapolated from electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate (HR) measurements during each of the VR experiences.

Low patient motivation and compliance has been reported as a main barrier to effective rehabilitation. This study aims to provide an engaging and intuitive tool to increase the motivation of elderly stroke survivors in rehabilitation program. We present a tangible gaming board for the training of upper limb gross motor and fine motor skills. 64 RGB LED rotary encoders are evenly distributed on the board into eight rows. A modular design allows for training of various hand functions with interchangeable sizes of knobs attached on the rotary encoders. Preliminary usability testing of the game "Lights Invader" with eight elderly stroke survivors suggested that the gaming board has a high acceptance rate among all the participants, the game interface is easy to understand and the game is fun to play with. User feedback on the features that need to be improved are discussed in this paper.