DropPop: Designing Drop-to-Deploy Mechanisms with Bistable Scissors StructuresDeployable structures often rely on complex deployment mechanisms such as external pneumatic pumps, electric motors, or manual assembly. These conventional methods, which are intended for applications in shape morphing architectures, robotics, and product design, can be bulky and unwieldy for everyday interaction and daily use. We introduce a new class of deployable structures that harness the locomotion of a single bistable cap to drive the expansion of a scissor-like mechanism. Such structures can be rapidly deployed (0.2-0.7s) upon a small trigger, and stabilize themselves requiring no sustained energy input. We explore various input modalities for deployment such as hand dropping, and drone deployment, and showcase demo applications. Additionally, we provide a computational design tool for customizing shape primitives with physics simulation and offer design guidelines for fabrication.2025YFYibo Fu et al.Shape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsShape-Changing Materials & 4D PrintingUIST
EI-Lite: Electrical Impedance Sensing for Micro-gesture Recognition and Pinch Force EstimationMicro-gesture recognition and fine-grain pinch press enables intuitive and discreet control of devices, offering significant potential for enhancing human-computer interaction (HCI). In this paper, we present EI-Lite, a lightweight wrist-worn electrical impedance sensing device for micro-gesture recognition and continuous pinch force estimation. We elicit an optimal and simplified device architecture through an ablation study on electrode placement with 13 users, and implement the elicited designs through 3D printing. We capture data on 15 participants on (1) six common micro-gestures (plus idle state) and (2) index finger pinch forces, then develop machine learning models that interpret the impedance signals generated by these micro-gestures and pinch forces. Our system is capable of accurate recognition of micro-gesture events (96.33% accuracy), as well as continuously estimating the pinch force of the index finger in physical units (Newton), with the mean-squared-error (MSE) of 0.3071 (or mean-force-variance of 0.55 Newtons) over 15 participants. Finally, we demonstrate EI-Lite's applicability via three applications in AR/VR, gaming, and assistive technologies.2025JZJunyi Zhu et al.Vibrotactile Feedback & Skin StimulationFoot & Wrist InteractionUIST
Anti-Heroes: A Role-Based Method to Encourage Ethical DeliberationHCI and design researchers have designed, adopted, and customized a range of ethics-focused methods to inscribe values and support ethical decision-making in a design process. In this paper, we add to this body of resources, constructing a method that surfaces the designer's intentions in an action-focused way, encouraging consideration of both manipulative and value-centered designer roles. Anti-Hero is a card deck that allows a designer to playfully take on pairs of manipulative (Anti-Heroes) and value-centered (Heroes) roles during design ideation/conceptualization, evaluation, and ethical dialogue. We illustrate the complexity of our ethics-focused method creation through a Research through Design (RtD) approach, reflecting on our iterative design decisions and outcomes from a playtesting evaluation with student designers. We reflect upon method affordances and performance ambiguities based on playtesting outcomes, indicating important areas of focus in future ethics-focused method creation and evaluation.2025SCShruthi Sai Chivukula et al.Technology Ethics & Critical HCIDesign FictionDIS
Xstrings: 3D Printing Cable-Driven Mechanism for Actuation, Deformation, and ManipulationIn this paper, we present Xstrings, a method for designing and fabricating 3D printed objects with integrated cable-driven mechanisms that can be printed in one go without the need for manual assembly. Xstrings supports four types of cable-driven interactions—bend, coil, screw and compress—which are activated by applying an input force to the cables. To facilitate the design of Xstrings objects, we present a design tool that allows users to embed cable-driven mechanisms into object geometries based on their desired interactions by automatically placing joints and cables inside the object. To assess our system, we investigate the effect of printing parameters on the strength of Xstrings objects and the extent to which the interactions are repeatable without cable breakage. We demonstrate the application potential of Xstrings through examples such as manipulable gripping, bionic robot manufacturing, and dynamic prototyping.2025JLJiaji Li et al.MIT, CSAIL; Zhejiang UniversityShape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsDesktop 3D Printing & Personal FabricationCHI
Waxpaper Actuator: Sequentially and Conditionally Programmable Wax Paper for Morphing InterfacesWe print wax on the paper and turn the composite into a sequentially-controllable, moisture-triggered, rapidly-fabricated, and low-cost shape-changing interface. This technique relies on a sequential control method that harnesses two critical variables: gray levels and water amount. By integrating these variables within a bilayer structure, composed of a paper substrate and wax layer, we produce a diverse wax pattern using a solid inkjet printer. These patterns empower wax paper actuators with rapid control over sequential deformations, harnessing various bending degrees and response times, which helps to facilitate the potential of swift personal actuator customization. Our exploration encompasses the material mechanism, the sequential control method, fabrication procedures, primitive structures, and evaluations. Additionally, we introduce a user-friendly software tool for design and simulation. Lastly, we demonstrate our approach through applications across four domains: agricultural seeding, interactive toys and art, home decoration, and electrical control.2024DWDi Wu et al.Carnegie Mellon UniversityShape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsCHI
Building an Ethics-Focused Action Plan: Roles, Process Moves, and TrajectoriesDesign and technology practitioners are increasingly aware of the ethical impact of their work practices, desiring tools to support their ethical awareness across a range of contexts. In this paper, we report on findings from a series of six co-creation workshops with 26 technology and design practitioners that supported their creation of a bespoke ethics-focused action plan. Using a qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis approach, we identified a range of roles and process moves that practitioners and design students with professional experience employed and illustrate the interplay of these elements that impacted the creation of their action plan and revealed aspects of their ethical design complexity. We conclude with implications for supporting ethics in socio-technical practice and opportunities for the further development of methods that support ethical engagement and are resonant with the realities of practice.2024CGColin M. Gray et al.Indiana UniversityTechnology Ethics & Critical HCIParticipatory DesignUser Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)CHI
DrivingVibe: Enhancing VR Driving Experience using Inertia-based Vibrotactile Feedback around the HeadWe present DrivingVibe, which explores vibrotactile feedback designs around the head to enhance VR driving motion experiences. We propose two approaches that use a 360-degree vibrotactile headband: 1) mirroring and 2) 3D inertia-based.The mirroring approach extends the vibrotactile patterns of handheld controllers to actuate the entire headband uniformly. The 3D inertia-based approach uses the acceleration telemetry data that driving games/simulators export to motion platforms to generate directional vibration patterns, including: i) centrifugal forces, ii) horizontal acceleration/deceleration, and iii) vertical motion due to rough terrain. The two approaches are complementary as the mirroring approach supports all driving games because it does not require telemetry data, while the 3D inertia-based approach provides higher feedback fidelity for games that provide such data. We conducted a 24-person user experience evaluation in both passive passenger mode and active driving mode. Study results showed that both DrivingVibe designs significantly improved realism, immersion, and enjoyment (p<.01) with large effect sizes for the VR driving experiences. For overall preference, 88% (21/24) of participants preferred DrivingVibe, with a 2:1 preference for 3D inertia-based vs. mirroring designs (14 vs. 7 participants). For immersion and enjoyment, 96% (23/24) of participants preferred DrivingVibe, with nearly a 3:1 preference (17 vs. 6 participants) for the 3D inertia-based design.2023NYNeng-Hao Yu et al.Head-Up Display (HUD) & Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)In-Vehicle Haptic, Audio & Multimodal FeedbackMobileHCI
The Inclusion Zone: Grounded Speculations in ChernobylThe Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 inspired this pictorial, which weaves together a number of technologies to tell a story about life in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in the aftermath of the nuclear meltdown. The artifacts included here run the gamut from functional to speculative and focus on how humans, plants, and animals can cope with the challenges of living in a disturbed landscape. They are designed to inspire conversation about the larger world to which they belong. Grounding speculative design in Chernobyl invites us to revisit the relationship between technology and ecology in sites of exclusion and abandon. What happens if we return, or are forced to return, to these hitherto excluded sites? What is it like to live in the aftermath of a disaster whose invisible effects continue for thousands of years? What are some of the technologies that might be seen in such a world and how do they facilitate cohabitation between the humans, plants, and animals of the Zone, and radiation? These questions blur some of the boundaries that can sometimes become too rigid in design fictions, such as the fixed present vs. the flexible future, or diegetic vs. speculative vs. functional prototypes. Moreover, while the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is in many ways unique, Chernobyl is by no means the only Exclusion Zone. It is joined by a growing number of abandoned spaces, from shuttered reactors like Fukushima Daiichi, to nuclear waste sites like Hanford, US, and toxic e-waste sites like Agbogbloshie, Ghana. We propose that grounding speculations in such exclusion zones can contribute to more than human-centered design and post-humanist discourse.2020NSNancy Smith et al.Design FictionSustainable HCIHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)DIS
Developing a Community of Practice to Support Global HCI EducationACM SIGCHI has been supporting research in HCI education for many years, most actively from 2011-2014. At CHI2014, a workshop on developing a new HCI living curriculum was held, building on three years of research and collaboration. We believe the time is right to develop and implement the suggested HCI living curriculum. We propose a hands-on workshop to develop a concrete active community of practice of HCI scholars and educators, sharing and collaborating to develop course outlines, curricula, and teaching materials. The workshop will define the conceptual framework and user experience of the HCI living curriculum, develop its information architecture and infrastructure, and evaluate how existing platforms do and do not fulfill the proposed needs. Post-workshop initiatives will aim to move towards implementing the first iteration of the living curriculum.2018OSOlivier St-Cyr et al.University of TorontoProgramming Education & Computational ThinkingCollaborative Learning & Peer TeachingCHI