1. Tangible Input Devices
for Digital Fabrication
Benjamin A. Leduc-Mills
Proposal Defense
October 3, 2013

2. Roadmap
 Background & Motivation
 Related Work
 Current State of Affairs
 Proposed Work
 Risks, Limitations, and Outcomes

3. The Era of Personal Fabrication
 Gershenfeld and Anderson
 Unprecedented ability for individuals to manufacture on
a small scale
 3D printing a major focus

4. 3D Printing and Children
 3D printing is permeating educational spaces and can
be a tool for learning
 Support for novice designers can be better – download &
print is not meaningful
 Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) informed by embodied
cognition and constructionist traditions is a promising
avenue for research

5. Goals
 Design a class of TUIs that facilitate exploration, play, and
design for 3D printers.
 Draw on the history of tangible learning tools and
embodied cognition to situate and inform the TUI designs
 Evaluate the TUIs to gauge usability and learning
potential among tweens and young teens (11-14)

6. Related Work: Major Themes
 “Things to Learn With” – educational objects
 Embodied Cognition – a body-centric view of cognitive
development
 Embodied Interfaces – „smart‟ tangible devices, that
combine ideas from both

7. Related Work: Educational Objects
 Froebel‟s Gifts
 Montessori Manipulatives
 Piaget‟s Genetic Epistemology
 Papert & Computational Constructionism

8. Related Work: Embodied Cognition
 Cognitive processes are „deeply rooted‟ in physical
interactions (e.g. learning readiness by hand gesture)
 Embodied Mathematics – collection, construction, stick
manipulations, walking along a path
 Embodied Design – encouraging thinking through doing

9. Related Work: Embodied Interfaces
 Tangibles + Embodied Cognition = Embodied Interfaces
 Digital Manipulatives (Resnick)
 Tangible Bits (Ishii)
 Embodied Design (Klemmer et al., Antle)

10. Related Work: Approaches
 Modeling Tools
 „Smart‟ Blocks
 Interactive Fabrication Tools
 3D Printing

11. Modeling Tools
HyperGami & Topobo

12. „Smart‟ Blocks
RoBlocks & Activecube

13. Interactive Fabrication
Shaper & Constructable

14. 3D Printing
KidCAD & Easigami

15. Current Status
(AKA the work I‟ve already done)

16. UCube (v1): Hardware
Grid, Tower, and Switch
paradigm
4x4x4 Input Space (64
possible points)
System state sent to a
software program

17. UCube: Software
Real-time representation
Interpretation of input:
convex hull, knot/path
„Edit‟ mode for convex
hull
Export to .STL
Save, Load, Spline,
Wireframe

18. UCube: Study 1
14 Participants – 5 girls, 9
boys
5 groups of 2, 1 group of 4
Screen-based modeling
tasks – side by side
screens, one live, one
target shape
5 target shapes: straight
vertical line, diagonal
line, a cube, a triangular
prism, and an irregular
polyhedron

19. UCube: Study 1 Results
4 groups (including the
group of four) completed
all the shapes
1 group ran out of time
after 3 shapes
1 group modeled 1 shape
Sessions lasted 17-30
minutes
24/30 tasks successful – 80%

20. UCube: Study 2
10 participants: 8 boys, 2 girls
2 exercises: modeling &
matching
9 shapes, cube in each (10 tasks)
Modeling: model on UCube from
3D-printed models
Progression from
memory, holding shape, using
software
Matching: given a set of lights on
the UCube, choose the correct
3D-printed model out of a set

21. Study 2 Results: Modeling
Five shapes: cube, a
tetrahedron, a diamond, a house
(a cube with a pyramid on
top), and an irregular polyhedron
• 21 of 50 from memory
• 12 of 50 holding model
• 8 of 50 with software
Total = 41/50 or 82%
Of 9 misses, 7 were irregular
polygon
Remaining misses both from
same participant (the youngest)

22. Study 2 Results: Matching
Of 50 matching tasks, 0
objects were chosen
incorrectly
Most matches were
completed in 20 seconds or
less

23. SnapCAD: Hardware
Formerly UCube v2
7x7x7 input space (343
points)
Removable magnetic LED
boards – multiple
colors, multiple
shapes, multi-player games
More robust, studier design
Bigger, more
immersive, more
embodied?

24. SnapCAD: Software
Multiple colors of convex
hull
3D Tic-Tac-Toe
implementation
Minimal Spanning Tree
(MST) mode
Edit mode for path & MST
Width slider for path & MST
All exportable to .STL

25. PopCAD
Pop-Up Book, paper-
friendly electronics
Lighter, Cheaper, Portable
3x3x3 input space –
27 input points
Capacitive switches toggle
LEDs on and off
Software has been
adapted for PopCAD

26. Proposed Work
Technical Additions

27. SnapCAD
Focus on multi-shape and mutli-
player capabilities
Colors++, Avoid Red+Green
Explore 2-shape modeling
operations –
union, difference, intersection
Two shapes occupying the same
point
Other modeling modes - Curves?
Voronoi mesh? Recursion?
2 paths, 2 minimal spanning trees

28. PopCAD
Exploration of paper as
material – can paper
mechanisms give rise to new
modeling operations?
Embedding new sensors
Multiple, networked, pop-up
books? Gives rise to other
kinds of
cooperative/competitive
operations
Redesign – switch
placement, tower
spacing, paper choice, origin
marker

29. Proposed Work
User Studies

30. User Study 1: SnapCAD
 12-30 Participants, 11-14
years old
 6 exercises: hull
modeling, path
modeling, mst modeling, 2
hull modeling, 3D tic-tic-
toe, „freehand‟ activity
 Hull, path, mst – brief
demo, then 3 modeling tasks
from 3D-printed models
 2 hull – model from side-by-
side screen comparison (x3)
 Tic-Tac-Toe – 3 games
 Freehand exercise to gauge
expressiveness, desired
capabilities
 Measure successful
completion (or lack
thereof), time to
completion, and
observational notes
 User instructed to think aloud
 Audio, Video, and screen
capture for additional
analysis

31. User Study 2: PopCAD
 10-15 Participants, 11-14
years old
 3 modeling exercises plus
freehand activity
 Convex hull, path, minimal
spanning tree
 5 3D-printed shapes for
each mode
 Measure successful
completion (or lack
thereof), time to
completion, and
observational notes
 Track new vs. overlapping
participants
 User to think aloud
 Photography and Screen
Capture for further analysis

32. Timeline
Task Timeline Notes
User Study Logistics Sept-Oct IRB & Site Approval
Technical Additions Sept-Oct As Outlined in Proposed Work
Conduct User Studies Nov-Jan SnapCAD & PopCAD Studies
Write Up Results Feb-March Analyze & Write Up Data
Write Dissertation April-June Put it all together
Defend Dissertation June Defend

33. Risks
 These are unproven interfaces – may be completely
unsuitable
 May be useable, but viscerally unappealing to target
group
 Practical roadblocks: device malfunction, loss of study
data, lack of sufficient participants

34. Limitations
 Many modeling operations are impossible
(curves, scaling, extrusion, etc.)
 Not a catch-all or professional solution, but a part of an
„ecosystem‟ of next generation fabrication tools
 Learning outcomes are not truly being measured, merely
hinted at through the related literature and the user
studies

35. Outcomes
 Argue convincingly that embodied + tangible devices
can aid in modeling for 3D printing
 Suggest scaffolding of mathematical and spatial
reasoning skills
 Make comparisons between devices, modeling modes,
tasks

36. Conclusions
 A novel body of work: 3 devices, 4 user studies
 Significant contribution that is timely and important
 A path for future research on embodied devices for
digital fabrication

37. Thank You
Questions?

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