LASEC

Project Details
Project Name :

LASEC

Project Category :

01Digital Fabrication Technologies, Daniel

Client Review :

(CHI 2019)

Description :

LASEC

Instant Fabrication of Stretchable Circuits Using a Laser Cutter


Stretchable interfaces are becoming increasingly relevant in interaction design. Thus far, however, we lack a technique for instantly fabricating stretchable interface prototypes. This paper introduces LASEC, the first technique for instant do-it-yourself fabrication of circuits with custom stretchability on a conventional laser cutter and in a single pass. The approach is based on integrated cutting and ablation of a two-layer material using parametric design patterns. These patterns enable the designer to customize the desired stretchability of the circuit, to combine stretchable with non-stretchable areas, or to integrate areas of different stretchability. For adding circuits on such stretchable cut patterns, we contribute routing strategies and a real-time routing algorithm. An interactive design tool assists designers by automatically generating patterns and circuits from a high-level specification of the desired interface. The approach is compatible with off-the-shelf materials and can realize transparent interfaces. Several application examples demonstrate the versatility of the novel technique for applications in wearable computing, interactive textiles, and stretchable input devices.

Publication

Daniel Groeger, Jürgen Steimle
In Proceedings of the 32nd ACM Symposium on User interface software and technology (UIST’19), ACM Press, 2019.


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