PneUI: pneumatically actuated soft composite materials for shape changing interfaces
clarkds @ mit.edu Figure 1: Application demonstrations. (a) A shape changing mobile. (b) Height changing tangible phicons. (c) A transformable tablet case. (d) A shape-shifting lamp. This paper presents PneUI, an enabling technology to build shape-changing interfaces through pneumatically-actuated soft composite materials. The composite materials integrate the capabilities of both input sensing and active shape output. This is enabled by the composites ’ multi-layer structures with different mechanical or electrical properties. The shape changing states are computationally controllable through pneumatics and pre-defined structure. We explore the design space of PneUI through four applications: height changing tangible phicons, a shape changing mobile, a transformable tablet case and a shape shifting lamp.