These notes are a summary of concepts presented in “Making 3D printed objects interactive using wireless accelerometers.”
Jonathan Hook, Thomas Nappey, Steve Hodges, Peter Wright, and Patrick Olivier. 2014. Making 3D printed objects interactive using wireless accelerometers. In CHI ’14 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’14). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1435–1440. https://doi.org/10.1145/2559206.2581137
- Interactive 3D Printed Objects
- Tracks movements of multiple wireless three-axis accelerometers
- Accelerometers embedded in a 3D printed prototype
- Graphical User Interface (GUI)
- Simple GUI configures the system
- Interprets movements as physical controls (e.g., buttons, dials)
- Maps movements to digital interactive behaviors on a host PC
- Common Physical Controls and Their Behavior
- Push buttons
- Moves along a linear path when pressed and released
- Accelerometer placed within the moving part of the button
- Rocker and trigger switches
- Similar to levers and pedals
- Orientation varies with respect to gravity when pressed and released
- Configured by recording low-pass filtered values in pressed/released states
- Levers and pedals
- Accelerometer embedded in a moving part
- Orientation varies on at least one axis during movement
- Positioned around pivot points or in extended handles
- Dials
- Accelerometer embedded in a rotating part
- Reflects continuous position values around a central point
- Rotary Encoders
- Similar to dials but fires discrete clockwise/anti-clockwise events
- Position changes beyond a configurable threshold using the GUI
- Push buttons
- Algorithm for Rotation Events
- Translates movements into clockwise/anti-clockwise rotation events
- Configurable via the GUI
- Integration and Accessibility
- Tools support integration of digital sensing with physical prototyping
- Enables interaction with digital content