Voxel Invention Kit: Reconfigurable Building Blocks for Prototyping Interactive Electronic Structures
Name
3706598.3713948.pdf
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11.95 MB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
d2359da0f1368183bd51de9d625b7383
Author(s)
Smith, Miana
Forman, Jack
Abdel-Rahman, Amira
Wang, Sophia
Gershenfeld, Neil
Date Issued
April 25, 2025
Publisher
ACM|CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Citation
Miana Smith, Jack Forman, Amira Abdel-Rahman, Sophia Wang, and Neil Gershenfeld. 2025. Voxel Invention Kit: Reconfigurable Building Blocks for Prototyping Interactive Electronic Structures. In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 890, 1–15.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Prototyping large, electronically integrated structures is challenging and often results in unwieldy wiring, weak mechanical properties, expensive iterations, or limited reusability. While many electronics prototyping kits exist for small-scale objects, relatively few methods exist to freely iterate large and sturdy structures with integrated electronics. To address this gap, we present the Voxel Invention Kit (VIK), which uses reconfigurable blocks that assemble into high-stiffness, lightweight structures with integrated electronics. We do this by creating cubic blocks composed of PCBs that carry electrical routing and components and can be (re)configured with simple tools into a variety of structures. To ensure structural stability without expertise, we created a tool to configure structures and simulate applied loads, which we validated with mechanical testing data. Using VIK, we produced devices reconfigured from a shared set of voxels: multiple iterations of a customizable AV lounge seat, a dance floor game, and a force-sensing bridge.
Description
CHI ’25, Yokohama, Japan
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Bits and Atoms
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713948
