Collaborative Research: HCC: Small: Programmable Visual Capabilities of Environments through 3D printed Light-transfer

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Although 3D printing is now inexpensive enough for end-users to create custom interactive devices with sensing and actuation capabilities that leverage visual feedback, most resulting objects are either passive or require complicated, expensive, and high-maintenance electronics. Furthermore, the design and fabrication of custom functions, and the reprogramming of those functions in physical objects once fabricated, are nearly impossible for end-users with little experience or without domain expertise. This project aims to change that situation by increasing users’ perception of everyday objects and their functions to support decision making and improve performance in associated tasks. Project outcomes will have broad impact by advancing the state of the art in 3D printing of everyday objects and interactive devices with enhanced visual capabilities for applications in smart environments. Additional impact will derive from leveraging the interplay between the 3D printing process and material characteristics to equip visual capabilities with passive light-transfer properties and thereby foster end-user consideration of visual literacy when designing battery-less smart objects that convey digital information. To achieve these goals the project will center around four main research activities. First, the team will conduct holistic material experiments to characterize the design space of light-transfer materials and micro-structures, in order to understand their capabilities in charging, releasing, and reflecting light energy to sense, communicate, and display information. This will be followed by a series of hypothesis testing experiments to ascertain the effect of improved human perception on recognizing embedded information. Second, the team will work with domain experts (i.e., in architecture and visualization) as well as engineering/design students using iterative participatory design techniques to distil the knowledge obtained in the previous activity to identify opportunities, challenges, and needs in design support tools, and to implement practical application prototypes that afford the new interactions, and actuation mechanisms and 3D printing parameters will be associated with significant design parameters. Third, toolkits will be developed based on these design parameters to facilitate end-user visual literacy in 3D object design, and to convey key information when developing new interactive devices. Lastly, rigorous technical evaluation and user studies will be designed to validate the approach both quantitatively and qualitatively.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.