DESIGN NAME: Venous Materials
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Interactive Materials
INSPIRATION: This project is inspired by venous structures that are ubiquitous throughout nature and in the human body. By changing colors, veins can inform us of internal and external physical conditions. For example, veins in leaves transmit pigments that drive color change, which informs us of the internal condition of the leaf and which season it is. When we press firmly on a button, the tip of our finger changes its color, this subtle color change can be used to indicate the applied pressure.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The Venous Materials project envisions a new way to design dynamic tangible interactions using fluidic structures. It is a new type of dynamic interactive material that is inspired by veins systems in nature: in plants, leaves, and throughout the human body. These Materials respond to user's pressure and motion with dynamic displayed patterns. Venous Materials can animate dynamic graphics, create responsive objects, and to visualize body movement and balance.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: The displayed flow pattern and color change of the fluidic channels within Venous Materials inform the users of the motion and physical force that is applied on the material. The users can interact with Venous Materials by deforming or applying pressure on the material, which drives the fluid flow within the internal channels to visualize the dynamic responsive display. Therefore, Venous Materials simultaneously functions as a sensor and display of tangible information.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The project started June 2019 and finished April 2020 in Cambridge, MA, at the MIT Media Lab, Tangible Media group
FITS BEST INTO CATEGORY: Idea and Conceptual Design
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: Venous Materials technology developed through research on current Microfluidics,that is specifically designed for human interaction and UX design. A specilized computational tool was developed for the design process and to simulate and visualize of the color change and display of the flow within the material, according to the user input. Production process involves laser engraving and manual lab processes. Materials used are PDMS silicone and ecoline ink.
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: The different Venous Materials prototypes are mainly 5cmX5cm, while some of them can get up to 15cmX15cm.
TAGS: Interaction Design, Material research, Dynamic Graphics, Microfluidics, Computational Aided Design, Sensors and Displays, Venous Structures
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: This work present design and fabrication methods for interactive fluidic mechanisms that respond to deformation by mechanical inputs from the user. The Venous design tool provides designers with a simple way to create and validate designs of fluidic structures. It allows users to design the geometry, and simulate the flow with intended mechanical force dynamically. This leads to Interactive applications of Venous Materials, to augment human movement and everyday objects.
CHALLENGE: While current computer chips and electronics usually require rigid and bulky components that challenges the integration with varied objects or fabrics, Venous Materials is soft and self-contained mechanism that utilizes the motion of daily activities as its energy source. Design of micro-fluid dynamics is not intuitive task, our approach and computational tool allows the design, simulation, and prototyping of fluidic interactive sensors that can be embedded in, or attached to, any object.
ADDED DATE: 2020-06-16 22:56:22
TEAM MEMBERS (7) : Hila Mor, Tianyu Yu, Ken Nakagaki, Benjamin Harvey Miller, Yichen Jia, Hiroshi Ishii and
IMAGE CREDITS: All Photo/video credit to Tangible Media Group, MIT Media Lab
PATENTS/COPYRIGHTS: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Tangible Media Group / MIT Media Lab
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