Ceramics practice is an embodied activity where creators use manual tools in unique ways to shape physical material. Clay 3D printing uses the same material as manual ceramics craft, enabling new opportunities for form and texture by precisely controlling the 3D printing toolpath. However, current clay 3D printing design workflows require developing forms through digital software rather than tool-based making. We present Clay ARtools, an augmented reality (AR) system for designing clay 3D printed vessels. We developed Clay ARtools in collaboration with a professional ceramicist to create AR toolpath editing operations that reference manual use of ceramic tools. Through the design and fabrication of 3D-printed clay artifacts, we demonstrate how AR ceramic tools enable precise and controllable modifications of the toolpath, from the overall form down to individual toolpath points. We demonstrate how extending physical tool metaphors with digital representations and numerical precision enables craft-like interaction with CAM-based design techniques.

The amount of e-waste generated by discarding devices is enormous but options for recycling remain limited. However, inside a discarded device (from consumer devices to one's own prototypes), an electronics designer could find dozens to thousands of reusable components, including microcontrollers, sensors, voltage regulators, etc. Despite this, existing electronic design tools assume users will buy all components anew. To tackle this, we propose ecoEDA, an interactive tool that enables electronics designers to explore recycling electronic components during the design process. We accomplish this via (1) creating suggestions to assist users in identifying and designing with recycled components; and (2) maintaining a library of useful data relevant to reuse (e.g., allowing users to find which devices contain which components). Through example use-cases, we demonstrate how our tool can enable various pathways to recycling e-waste. To evaluate it, we conducted a user study where participants used our tool to create an electronic schematic with components from torn-down e-waste devices. We found that participants’ designs made with ecoEDA featured an average of 66% of recycled components. Last, we reflect on challenges and opportunities for building software that promotes e-waste reuse.

Users often 3D model enclosures that interact with significant heat sources, such as electronics or appliances that generate heat (e.g., CPU, motor, lamps, etc.). While parts made by users might function well aesthetically or structurally, they are rarely thermally-sound. This happens because heat transfer is non-intuitive; thus, engineering thermal solutions is not straightforward. To tackle this, we developed ThermalRouter, a CAD plugin that assists with improving the thermal performance of their models. ThermalRouter automatically converts regions of the model to be made from thermally-conductive materials (such as nylon or metallic-silicone). These regions act as heat channels, branching away from hotspots to dissipate heat. The key is that ThermalRouter automatically simulates the thermal performance of many possible heat channel configurations and presents the user with the most thermally-sound design (e.g., lowest temperature). Furthermore, it allows users to customize by balancing costs, indicating non-modifiable geometry, etc. Most importantly, ThermalRouter achieves this without requiring manual labor to set up or parse the results of complex thermal simulations.

Dynamically adjusting the content of augmented reality (AR) applications to efficiently display information best fitting the available screen estate may be important for user performance and satisfaction. Currently, there is not a common practice for dynamically adjusting the content of AR applications based on their apparent size in the user's view of the surround environment. We present a Level-of-Detail AR mechanism to improve the usability of AR applications at any relative size. Our mechanism dynamically renders textual and interactable content based on its legibility, interactability, and viewability respectively. When tested, Level-of-Detail AR functioned as intended out-of-the-box on 44 of the 45 standard user interface Unity prefabs in Microsoft's Mixed Reality Tool Kit. We additionally evaluated impact on task performance, user distance, and subjective satisfaction through a mixed-design user study with 45 participants. Statistical analysis of our results revealed significant task-dependent differences in user performance between the modes. User satisfaction was consistently higher for the Level-of-Detail AR condition.