Integrating Electronic Components into Deformable Objects Based on User Interaction Data

With an increased interest in Organic User Interface, it becomes more and more important to help designers create deformable devices. One current challenge is the integration of rigid and soft electronic components with the device. In this paper, we propose to place electronic components based on how the user is interacting with the device, i.e., in which way the device is being deformed. For this, we developed a prototyping tool that takes as input a set of captured user gestures and a 3D model of the deformable device, and then visualizes the stress distribution resulting from the deformation during interaction. Our tool finally suggests where not to place components because the location is highly deformed when users interact (e.g., where not to place a rigid battery that would constraint interaction); or alternatively where to place components to sense deformation more accurately and efficiently (e.g., a bend sensor to detect a specific gesture, an energy harvesting component). We evaluated our approach by collecting interaction data from 12 users across 3 deformable devices (a watch, camera, and mouse) and applied the resulting stress distributions to the placement of selected electronic components.