Materiable

Shape changing interfaces give physical shapes to digital data so that users can feel and manipulate data with their hands and bodies. However, physical objects in our daily life not only have shape but also various material properties. In this project, we propose "Materiable," an interaction technique to represent material properties using shape changing interfaces. Specifically, by integrating the multi-modal sensation techniques of haptics, our approach builds a perceptive model for the properties of deformable materials in response to direct manipulation without precise force feedback. As a proof-of-concept prototype, we developed preliminary physics algorithms running on pin-based shape displays. The system can create computationally variable properties of deformable materials that are visually and physically perceivable. In our experiments, users identify three deformable material properties (flexibility, elasticity and viscosity) through direct touch interaction with the shape display and its dynamic movements. Our research shows that shape changing interfaces can go beyond simply displaying shape allowing for rich embodied interaction and perceptions of rendered materials with the hands and body. Credits: Ken Nakagaki*, Luke Vink*, Jared Counts, Daniel Windham, Daniel Leithinger, Sean Follmer, Hiroshi Ishii * Contributed Equally The Tangible Media Group, led by Professor Hiroshi Ishii, explores the Tangible Bits vision to seamlessly couple the dual world of bits and atoms by giving physical form to digital information. Humans have evolved a heightened ability to sense and manipulate the physical world, yet the Graphical User Interface (GUI) takes little advantage of this human capacity. A Tangible User Interface (TUI) builds upon our dexterity by embodying digital information in physical space. TUIs expand the affordances of physical objects, surfaces, and spaces so they can support direct engagement with the digital world. However, TUIs have limited ability to change the form or properties of physical objects in real time. This constraint can make the physical state of TUIs inconsistent with the underlying digital models. http://tangible.media.mit.edu/