MagFace: Interference-Resistant Facial Gesture Recognition System on Cycling Glasses with Low-Power Magnetic SensingFacial interaction provides a safe, hands-free input method for cyclists. However, existing wearable facial gesture recognition suffers from severe interference in real-world conditions such as lighting, vibration, sweat, noise, and temperature changes. We present MagFace, an interference-resistant recognition system for cycling glasses using energy-efficient magnetic sensing. MagFace employs four pairs of magnetic silicone and magnetometers on the frame to capture subtle facial skin movements, operating at 30 Hz with a peak power of 150 mW. A tailored deep learning pipeline effectively learns magnetic signals for gesture classification. An evaluation (N=15) shows that MagFace required only one minute of training data to recognize six gestures across different cycling scenarios with high accuracy. A controlled conditions evaluation (N=8) shows MagFace's robustness against strong lighting, wind, bumpy roads, and uphills. Finally, an in-the-wild evaluation (N=14) shows the stable performance of MagFace's real-time system and demonstrates promising usability of MagFace.2026GWGuanyun Wang et al.Zhejiang UniversityHand Gesture RecognitionMotion Sickness & Passenger ExperienceContext-Aware ComputingCHI
KiriInflate: Fabricating Cross-Scale Inflatables with Large-Magnitude Contraction and Tunable Stretchability for Tangible InteractionWe present KiriInflate, a rapid, precise, and accessible fabrication method for creating stretchable inflatables with Kirigami structures. These inflatables, fabricated at multiple scales (from fingernail-sized to body-sized), exhibit rapid, large contraction upon inflation up to 83.5% and provide tunable stretchability. Our fabrication process leverages the electrostatic adhesion of plastic films and an off-the-shelf laser cutter to simultaneously cut and fuse the edges of inflatables, achieving ultra-narrow seals (< 0.125 mm). Our structural design enables versatile 3D morphing upon inflation and tunable stretch behavior, with experimental studies offering design guidelines for key geometric parameters. A series of applications, including an eyelid assistive device, a multi-mode game handle, a dynamic elbow brace, and breathable lamps, highlight its potential for diverse interaction in HCI.2025YYYue Yang et al.Shape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsShape-Changing Materials & 4D PrintingUIST
TH-Wood: Developing Thermo-Hygro-Coordinating Driven Wood Actuators to Enhance Human-Nature InteractionWood has become increasingly applied in shape-changing interfaces for its eco-friendly and smart responsive properties, while its applications face challenges as it remains primarily driven by humidity. We propose TH-Wood, a biodegradable actuator system composed of wood veneer and microbial polymers, driven by both temperature and humidity, and capable of functioning in complex outdoor environments. This dual-factor-driven approach enhances the sensing and response channels, allowing for more sophisticated coordinating control methods. To assist in designing and utilizing the system more effectively, we developed a structure library inspired by dynamic plant forms, conducted extensive technical evaluations, created an educational platform accessible to users, and provided a design tool for deformation adjustments and behavior previews. Finally, several ecological applications demonstrate the potential of TH-Wood to significantly enhance human interaction with natural environments and expand the boundaries of human-nature relationships.2025GWGuanyun Wang et al.Zhejiang UniversityShape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)CHI
Degrade to Function: Towards Eco-friendly Morphing Devices that Function Through Programmed Sequential DegradationWhile it seems counterintuitive to think of degradation within an operating device as beneficial, one may argue that when rationally designed, the controlled breakdown of materials—physical, chemical, or biological—can be harnessed for specific functions. To apply this principle to the design of morphing devices, we introduce the concept of "Degrade to Function" (DtF). This concept aims to create eco-friendly and self-contained morphing devices that operate through a sequence of environmentally-triggered degradations. We explore its design considerations and implementation techniques by identifying environmental conditions and degradation types that can be exploited, evaluating potential materials capable of controlled degradation, suggesting designs for structures that can leverage degradation to achieve various transformations and functions, and developing sequential control approaches that integrate degradation triggers. To demonstrate the viability and versatility of this design strategy, we showcase several application examples across a range of environmental conditions.2024QLQiuyu Lu et al.Shape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsSustainable HCIUIST
SnapInflatables: Designing Inflatables with Snap-through Instability for Responsive InteractionSnap-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, and a bounce button, demonstrate enhanced passive interaction with inflatables.2024YYYue Yang et al.Zhejiang UniversityShape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsCHI
IntelliTex: Fabricating Low-cost and Washable Functional Textiles using A Double-coating Process We present IntelliTex, a low-cost and highly accessible double-coating fabrication method for washable and reusable functional textiles with customized input functionalities. Specifically, off-the-shelf textiles are firstly coated with conductive carbon black using pen ink, which endows textiles with rich sensing capabilities, such as pressure, stretch, slide, and temperature. Secondly, textiles are coated with polyurethane to enhance the sensing stability over wash cycles for good reusability. To support user customization, we enrich the design space of double-coating by exploring various coating methods and diverse textiles to be coated. We further contribute a comprehensive library of input components and an online document to make our approach accessible to novice users. Finally, five application examples and a user study showcase the versatile functionalities and user accessibility of our method, with which we hope to support designers, makers, and researchers to easily create functional textiles ready to use in everyday life.2024YPYuecheng Peng et al.Zhejiang UniversityElectronic Textiles (E-textiles)Customizable & Personalized ObjectsCHI
ThermoFit: Thermoforning Smart Orthoses via Metamaterial Structures for Body-Fitting and Component-Adjusting"Smart orthoses hold great potential for intelligent rehabilitation monitoring and training. However, most of these electronic assistive devices are typically too difficult for daily use and challenging to modify to accommodate variations in body shape and medical needs. For existing clinicians, the customization pipeline of these smart devices imposes significant learning costs. This paper introduces ThermoFit, an end-to-end design and fabrication pipeline for thermoforming smart orthoses that adheres to the clinically accepted procedure. ThermoFit enables the shapes and electronics positions of smart orthoses to conform to bodies and allows rapid iteration by integrating low-cost Low-Temperature Thermoplastics (LTTPs) with custom metamaterial structures and electronic components. Specifically, three types of metamaterial structures are used in LTTPs to reduce the wrinkles caused by the thermoforming process and to permit component position adjustment and joint movement. A design tool prototype aids in generating metamaterial patterns and optimizing component placement and circuit routing. Three applications show that ThermoFit can be shaped on bodies to different wearables. Finally, a hands-on study with a clinician verifies the user-friendliness of thermoforming smart orthosis, and technical evaluations demonstrate fabrication efficiency and electronic continuity. https://doi.org/10.1145/3580806"2023GWGuanyun Wang et al.Haptic WearablesCircuit Making & Hardware PrototypingUbiComp
All-in-One Print: Designing and 3D Printing Dynamic Objects Using Kinematic Mechanism Without AssemblyThe 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.2023JLJiaji Li et al.Zhejiang UniversityDesktop 3D Printing & Personal FabricationShape-Changing Materials & 4D PrintingCHI
E-Orthosis: Augmenting Off-the-shelf Orthoses with ElectronicsOrthoses 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.2023YYYue Yang et al.Zhejiang UniversityElectrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS)Haptic WearablesCircuit Making & Hardware PrototypingCHI
PneuFab: Designing Low-cost 3D-Printed Inflatable Structures for Blow Molding ArtifactsAccess 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.2023GWGuanyun Wang et al.Zhejiang UniversityDesktop 3D Printing & Personal FabricationShape-Changing Materials & 4D PrintingCustomizable & Personalized ObjectsCHI
X-Bridges: Designing Tunable Bridges to Enrich 3D Printed Objects' Deformation and StiffnessBridges 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.2022LSLingyun Sun et al.Desktop 3D Printing & Personal FabricationShape-Changing Materials & 4D PrintingUIST
ShrinCage: 4D Printing Accessories that Self-Adapt3D printing technology makes Do-It-Yourself and reforming everyday objects a reality. However, designing and fabricating attachments that can seamlessly adapt existing objects to extended functionality is a laborious process, which requires accurate measuring, modeling, manufacturing, and assembly. This paper presents ShrinCage, a 4D printing system that allows novices to easily create shrinkable adaptations to fit and fasten existing objects. Specifically, the design tool presented in this work aid in the design of attachment that adapts to irregular morphologies, which accommodates the variations in measurements and fabrication, subsequently simplifying the modeling and assembly processes. We further conduct mechanical tests and user studies to evaluate the availability and feasibility of this method. Numerous application examples created by ShrinCage prove that it can be adopted by aesthetic modification, assistive technology, repair, upcycling, and augmented 3D printing.2021LSLingyun Sun et al.Zhejiang UniversityShape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsShape-Changing Materials & 4D PrintingCHI
FlexTruss: A Computational Threading Method for Multi-material, Multi-form and Multi-use Prototyping3D printing, as a rapid prototyping technique, usually fabricates objects that are difficult to modify physically. This paper presents FlexTruss, a design and construction pipeline based on the assembly of modularized truss-shaped objects fabricated with conventional 3D printers and assembled by threading. To create an end-to-end system, a parametric design tool with an optimal Euler path calculation method is developed, which can support both inverse and forward design workflow and multi-material construction of modular parts. In addition, the assembly of truss modules by threading is evaluated with a series of application cases to demonstrate the affordance of FlexTruss. We believe that FlexTruss extends the design space of 3D printing beyond typically hard and fixed forms, and it will provide new capabilities for designers and researchers to explore the use of such flexible truss structures in human-object interaction.2021LSLingyun Sun et al.Zhejiang UniversityDesktop 3D Printing & Personal FabricationLaser Cutting & Digital FabricationCHI