Deqing Sun

Touchable Objects

Make everyday objects touchable and create interaction on them.

Classes
Sensor Workshop


Touchable objects implement capacitive sensing technology to our everyday objects. By hiding copper tapes inside fabric, we can make any fabric surface touch sensitive. We can touch our plush animal like a pet, and get feedback from it just like a real pet. We can simulate emotion and reaction in our toys to give them life. Also this technology can be implement on horizontal surfaces to turn ordinary surface to a trackpad. We can either play with our finger to recognize movement and gesture, or use some conductive model to play on a digital play board.

User Scenario
For a plush toy, people can touch it just like a pet. The movement of user's fingers will be analyzed and proper reaction such as a certain sound clip, vibration or movement to give feedback to user. And make people feel that they are having a conversation with a toy.
For a trackpad, We can make a scalable track pad. It can be a small one to interact with our finger or large enough to interact with our feet or whole body. If we place conductive toy models on it, their position can be tracked and we can create a physical interactive user interface between player and computer.