Programmable Droplets for Interaction.

We present a design exploration on how water based droplets in our everyday environment can become interactive elements. For this exploration, we use electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) technology as the underlying mechanism to precisely control motion of droplets. EWOD technology provides a means to precisely transport, merge, mix and split water based droplets and has been widely explored for automating biological experiments in industrial 1 and research settings 2. More recently, it has been explored for DIY Biology applications. In our exploration we integrate EWOD devices into a range of everyday objects and scenarios to show how programmable water droplets can be used as information displays, interaction medium for painting and personal communication.