Automorph: Bringing Rigor to the Creation of Morphing Interactive Devices

Today there are almost as many mobile phones and tablets as there are people on the earth. This is seven times more than the number of motor vehicles in the world. It is thus surprising that the industry of interactive device is still as such an elementary state, e.g. relying on manufacturer's gut feeling to choose the shape of devices - a static and planar rectangle resembling a brick. In comparison the automobile industry has made considerable advances since the first Benz Motor Car in 1879. It now has diligent models (fluid mechanics), systematic tools (simulation software, wind tunnels) and methods (composite lay-up) that brought rigor and innovation to the creation process, allowing the production of intelligent structures and morphing materials used in many systems (e.g. cars, wind turbines). We believe that time has come to bring similar rigor to the industry of interactive device in order to create phones, tablets or other devices that are not only adapted to human interaction but also exploit the advances made in some of the fundamental sciences used to create automotive (e.g. Fig.1 a reconfigurable touchscreen using Shape Memory Alloys).

Such revolution could fundamentally transfigure the market of interactive devices, not only changing their shapes to be fully adapted to the human morphology, but also enabling morphing abilities: when launching a game, a phone would curl its edges to facilitate grasping with two hands; when writing an email, a tablet surface would transform into a keyboard to improve touch-typing; when teaching about the formation of continents, children would physically interact with and mould actuated surfaces in order to experience the impact of geological forces. These examples only scratch the surface in terms of ways in which we can interact with morphing interactive devices. This can radically change the way we interact with computers, making them universally versatile by endowing them with the ability to adapt themselves to the users in a natural way.

However, implementation of morphing interactive devices is far off despite tremendous breakthroughs in advanced materials. The problem is that tools and methods are confined to the automotive industry, focused on large-scale systems rather than small scale ones, and whose outcomes are out-of-reach of researchers with no expertise in material engineering. More importantly the entire design process requires a profound rethinking, as the underlying models do not apply anymore (e.g. fluid mechanics). Instead we need models of human interactions that are substantially more complex, encompassing not only the physical aspects of interaction (motor) but also human cognition and perception. Such models will not only help creating tools and methods for the interactive devices industry, but also contribute an unprecedented understanding of how shapes provide affordances (quality of an object to tell us how it wants to be used and how it helps us to use it) that can unleash the humans' interactive potential.

This research project has been designed to have an impact beyond the academic environment. In particular we identify three areas of impact.

(1) Our project will be beneficial to the UK economy by creating a new type of industry. By rethinking the way we create interactive devices, it will enable future development of key emerging industry by creating more synergies between the industry of interactive devices and the automotive one. Because we are not aware of any synergy of this kind, we believe it is a key opportunity to place UK in a unique competitive position that will foster national and global economic performance, and create new employment opportunities for both HCI and MS engineers.

(2) Our project will be beneficial to the general public and industry by democratizing access of advance materials to non-expert users. The ultimate goal of our project is to radically rethink the way we create interactive devices, and to do this we will create tools and methods that are directly inspired from fundamental automotive sciences but that are usable by non-expert researchers, designers and manufacturers. In other words, dissemination is an integral part of our project. We want to distribute our work through open-source material and we also want to explore the creation of a not-for-profit spin out company that would ultimately democratize access of advance materials to non-expert users.

(3) Our project will be beneficial to the society. Beyond this project, we believe that our tools and methods will increase efficiency and creativity of designers creating new ICT. This open new avenues of research towards future interactive ICT for targeted applications in many contexts such as education, cities or healthcare. For instance morphing interactive devices can dramatically improve educational experiences and outcomes in the coming decades. Consider for example the use of a shape changing map in a classroom of the future. When learning about the formation of continents, mountain ranges or river systems, students will be able to physically interact with and mould surfaces in order to better understand and simulate the impact of geological and environmental forces. This scenario could also be applied to commercial and governmental planning activities. Morphing objects can naturally adapt to the human morphology instead of forcing the human to adapt to objects. This could be very relevant for people with different psychomotor abilities such as elderly or impaired people and could also decrease muscle and nerve disorders associated with using objects with non-adapted form factor. Although our project does not directly aim at building such technology, the tools that we will create will facilitate their creation, thus why we believe our project to be groundbreaking.