Plywood punk: a holistic approach to designing animated artifacts

ABSTRACT

Animated artifacts require many different electronic and mechanical components as well as appropriate drive software. This complexity has led to a kit-of-parts thinking in designing robotic assemblies. For example, Dynamixel or Lego Mindstorms provide designers, enthusiasts and children standard components from which they can assemble a multitude of creations. Despite the open-endedness of these kits, the most basic component parts such as servos present a designer with a set of constraints such as form that she cannot control. The underlying logic for these factors derives from mass-production rather than specific design requirements. The resulting black box becomes a factor around which design is created rather than an integral part of the completed artifact. In this paper, we explore the benefits of designing animated artifacts holistically. As an example, we compare the re-design of a servo in plywood and electronic components with a typical RC servo. This juxtaposition demonstrates how form-factors, materials and materiality, tactile and visual qualities and the performative aspects of a design can be reintroduced into design thinking for animated artifacts. From the example, we distill four guidelines for a design approach: (1) iterate, (2) explore material properties, (3) engage the performative aspects of the artifact, (4) cross disciplinary boundaries.

References

1. Arduino physical computing platform. Available at http://www.arduino.cc/
2. Buechley, L., Eisenberg, M., Catchen, J., and Crockett, A. The LilyPad Arduino: Using computational textiles to investigate engagement, aesthetics, and diversity in computer science education. In Proc. of CHI 2008, ACM Press (2008), 423--432.
3. Dynamixel. Available at http://www.robotis.com/zbxe/main
4. Hartmann, B., Klemmer, S. R., Bernstein, M., Abdulla, L., Burr, B., Robinson-Mosher, A., and Gee, J. 2006. Reflective physical prototyping through integrated design, test, and analysis. In Proc. of UIST, ACM Press (2006), 299--308.
5. Ishii, H. Tangible pixels: Beyond pixels. In Proc. of TEI 2008, ACM Press (2008), XV-XXV.
6. Ishii, H. and Ullmer, B. Tangible bits: Towards seamless interfaces between people, bits and atoms. In Proc. of CHI 1997, ACM Press (1997), 234--241.
7. Laurel, B. ed. Design Research: Methods and Perspectives. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
8. Mackay, W. E. From Gaia to HCI: On multidisciplinary design and coadaptation. In Erickson, T., McDonald D. W., eds. HCI Remixed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.
9. OpenServo Community-based Project. Available at http://www.openservo.com/
10. PICO Cricket. Available at http://www.picocricket.com/
11. PID Controller. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller
12. Raffle, H. S., Parkes, A. J., and Ishii, H. Topobo: a constructive assembly system with kinetic memory. In Proc. of CHI, ACM Press (2004), 647--654.
13. Resnick, M., Berg, R., and Eisenberg, M. Beyond black boxes: Bringing transparency and aesthetics back to scientific investigation. In Journal of the Learning Sciences 9, 1 (2000), 7--30.
14. Rusk, N., Resnick, M., Berg, R., and Pezalla-Granlund, M. New pathways into robotics: Strategies for broadening participation. Journal of Science Education and Technology 17, 1 (2008), 59--69.
15. Villar, N. and Gellersen, H. A malleable control structure for softwired user interfaces. In Proc. of TEI 2007, ACM Press (2007), 49--56.
16. Wescott, T. PID without a PhD. In Embedded Systems Programming. Available at: http://www.embedded.com/2000/0010/0010feat3.htm
17. Zuckerman, O., Arida, S., and Resnick, M. Extending tangible interfaces for education: Digital montessori-inspired manipulatives. In Proc. of CHI 2005, ACM Press (2005), 859--868.