Interacting with personal fabrication devices

Interacting with Networked Devices

Interacting with Federated Devices

Some ubiquitous computing visions propose to embed an abundance of input and output devices in the environment. Depending on the context, the user can either interact with her limited personal device, or input and output devices from the surrounding infrastructure. But what about situations in which the user has need for the capabilities of both types of devices at the same time? A user might n...

Personal Fabrication

While fabrication technologies have been in use in industry for several decades, expiring patents have recently allowed the technology to spill over to technology-enthusiastic “makers”. The big question now is whether the technology will further progress towards consumers, which would allow the technology to scale from hundreds of thousands of users to hundreds of millions of users. Such a tran...

Dishmaker: Personal Fabrication Interface

People are tool-makers, but today we often depend on centralized fabrication for our tools. This paper explores the user experience opportunities demonstrated in a case study of a computer-controlled domestic fabrication system. Specifically we explore several approaches to creating a dish-maker that would create dishes on demand under computer control. The Dishmaker can create cups, bowls and ...

Interacting with physical devices over the web

The educational experience of students in a Computer Engineering capstone design course can be greatly enhanced by providing a framework that enables students to design devices that are accessible over the web. The framework consists of inexpensive hardware and software that permits the connection of arbitrary devices to a web page. Remote users can then interact with the physical device throug...