Kinetic Blocks: Actuated Constructive Assembly for Interaction and Display
Author(s)
Schoessler, Philipp; Windham, Daniel E.; Leithinger, Daniel; Follmer, Sean Weston; Ishii, Hiroshi
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Pin-based shape displays not only give physical form to digital information, they have the inherent ability to accurately move and manipulate objects placed on top of them. In this paper we focus on such object manipulation: we present ideas and techniques that use the underlying shape change to give kinetic ability to otherwise inanimate objects. First, we describe the shape display's ability to assemble, disassemble, and reassemble structures from simple passive building blocks through stacking, scaffolding, and catapulting. A technical evaluation demonstrates the reliability of the presented techniques. Second, we introduce special kinematic blocks that are actuated and sensed through the underlying pins. These blocks translate vertical pin movements into other degrees of freedom like rotation or horizontal movement. This interplay of the shape display with objects on its surface allows us to render otherwise inaccessible forms, like overhangs, and enables richer input and output.
Date issued
2015-11Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory; Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)Journal
Proceedings of the 28th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software & Technology - UIST '15
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Citation
Schoessler, Philipp, Daniel Windham, Daniel Leithinger, Sean Follmer, and Hiroshi Ishii. “Kinetic Blocks.” Proceedings of the 28th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software & Technology - UIST’15, November 08-11, 2015, Charlotte, NC, USA.
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISBN
9781450337793