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

这个项目将研究皮肤上的界面，这是一种新兴的下一代可穿戴计算形式。皮肤界面有智能纹身和绷带等形式。它们通过促进对代表人生理的信号的直接访问，扩展了当前移动和可穿戴设备的传感能力。这项技术为实现普及医疗保健、老年人辅助生活、未来工作和国防的“隐形计算机”的愿景带来了希望。虽然之前的皮肤上界面对社会有好处，但制作皮肤上界面原型的难度限制了这个新生的、但潜在的变革性领域的进展。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来推进皮肤界面的原型、设计和使用。它将结合不同的视角，在实验室环境之外，设计社交、外形因素和应用程序。它将把科学家、工程师和艺术家聚集在一起，发明人类皮肤上技术体验的未来。调查将利用开发的工具包，通过皮肤界面讲习班，向年轻女孩和农村地区的青年介绍跨学科的STEM学习。与工匠和艺术家的新颖合作计划，以及研究生和本科水平的教学创新，将有助于培养新的STEM工人，他们将身体设计与新兴的微型化技术相结合。这个项目将数字和物理领域混合在一起，连接文化和技术材料，融合工艺、计算机和电子产品。它将通过以下研究目标来研究创新的可穿戴计算：(1)使以前无法获得电子开发的人群能够制作皮肤上界面应用原型的构建工具包；(2)将易于获得的纺织和纸张材料与新兴的超薄电子产品相结合的新制造工艺，以快速制作皮肤上界面的原型；以及(3)STEM研究人员与工匠之间跨学科合作的新计划。研究目标将通过(1)开发工具的佩戴性和耐用性研究；以及(2)研讨会研究进行评估，这些研究为不同群体如何构建皮肤界面提供了新的评估，包括他们如何处理这个过程，他们想要构建的应用程序类型，他们如何展望集成到日常生活中的技术，以及他们在制作过程中发展的与STEM相关的技能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.