CAREER: On-Skin Interface Prototyping Toolkits: Democratizing Next Generation Wearable Computing

这个项目将研究皮肤上的接口，一个新兴的，下一代可穿戴计算形式。皮肤上的接口以智能纹身和绷带等形式出现。它们通过促进直接访问代表人们生理的信号，扩展了当前移动和可穿戴设备的传感能力。这项技术有望实现“隐形计算机”的愿景，用于普及医疗保健、老年人辅助生活、未来的工作和国防。虽然之前的皮肤界面已经给社会带来了好处，但皮肤界面原型设计的困难限制了这个新兴但潜在变革领域的进展。该项目将通过开发将传统工艺方法和非正统材料与数字制造技术和电子技术相结合的工具包，推进皮肤界面的原型设计、设计和使用。它将结合不同的观点，在实验室设置之外，为社会互动，形式因素和应用的设计。它将把科学家、工程师和艺术家聚集在一起，共同发明未来人类体验的皮肤技术。该调查将通过使用开发的工具包的皮肤界面研讨会，向年轻女孩和农村地区青年介绍跨学科的STEM学习。与工匠和艺术家的新颖合作项目，以及研究生和本科生的创新教学，将有助于培养新的STEM工作者，他们将身体设计与新兴的小型化技术结合起来。这个项目将融合数字和物理领域，连接文化和科技材料，融合工艺、计算和电子。它将通过以下研究目标来研究创新的可穿戴计算：(1)构建工具包，使以前无法接触电子产品开发的人群能够原型化皮肤界面应用；(2)新颖的制造工艺，将易于获取的纺织品和纸张材料与新兴的超薄电子产品混合在一起，用于皮肤界面的快速原型设计；(3)为STEM研究人员和工匠之间的跨学科合作提供新颖的项目。研究目标将通过(1)所开发工具的耐磨性和耐久性研究进行评估；(2)研讨会研究，提供对不同人群如何构建皮肤界面的新评估，包括他们如何处理该过程，他们想要构建的应用程序类型，他们如何设想在日常生活中集成的技术，以及他们在制作过程中开发的stem相关技能。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will investigate on-skin interfaces, an emerging, next generation form of wearable computing. On-skin interfaces come in forms such as smart tattoos and bandages. They expand the sensing capabilities of current mobile and wearable devices by facilitating direct access to signals that represent people’s physiology. This technology holds promise for realizing the vision of an "invisible computer" for pervasive healthcare, elderly assisted living, the future of work, and national defense. While prior on-skin interfaces have suggested benefits to society, the difficulty of prototyping on-skin interfaces is limiting progress in this nascent, yet potentially transformative field. The project will advance the prototyping, design, and use of on-skin interfaces through the development of toolkits that combine traditional crafting methods and unorthodox materials, with digital fabrication techniques and electronics. It will incorporate diverse perspectives, outside of laboratory settings, for the design of social interactions, form factors, and applications. It will bring scientists, engineers, and artists together to invent the future of human experiences of on-skin technologies. The investigation will introduce young girls and rural area youth to interdisciplinary STEM learning through on-skin interface workshops using the developed toolkits. Novel collaborative programs with craftspeople and artists, and teaching innovation at the graduate and undergraduate level will contribute to educating new STEM workers, who combine on-body design with emerging miniaturized technology. This project will hybridize digital and physical realms, connect cultural and technological materials, and blend craft, computing, and electronics. It will investigate innovative wearable computing through these research aims: (1) construction toolkits that enable populations previously without access to electronics development to prototype on-skin interface applications; (2) novel fabrication processes that blend readily accessible textile and paper materials with emerging slim electronics for rapid prototyping of on-skin interfaces; and (3) novel programs for transdisciplinary collaboration between STEM researchers and craftspeople. The research aims will be evaluated through (1) wearability and durability studies of the developed tools; and (2) workshop studies that provide novel assessments of how diverse populations build on-skin interfaces, including how they approach the process, the type of applications they want to build, how they envision the technologies integrated in everyday life, and the STEM-related skills they develop through the making process.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.