Conference Paper/Proceeding/Abstract 826 views 87 downloads
Flowcuits: Crafting Tangible and Interactive Electrical Components with Liquid Metal Circuits
,
Matt Jones ,
Sriram Subramanian,
Anusha Withana
Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction
Swansea University Authors:
Deepak Sahoo , Matt Jones
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DOI (Published version): 10.1145/3430524.3440654
Abstract
We present Flowcuits, a DIY fabrication method to prototype tangible, interactive and functional electrical components by manipulating liquid metal mechanisms. The generated prototypes afford both physical and visual interactions to demonstrate the inner working, underlying concepts and mechanics of...
| Published in: | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction |
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| ISBN: | 9781450382137 |
| Published: |
New York, NY, USA
ACM
2021
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa55683 |
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| Abstract: |
We present Flowcuits, a DIY fabrication method to prototype tangible, interactive and functional electrical components by manipulating liquid metal mechanisms. The generated prototypes afford both physical and visual interactions to demonstrate the inner working, underlying concepts and mechanics of fundamental electronic elements and circuits, which we propose as a method to support playful learning. The fabrication process follows simple imprinting and sealing of fluidic circuits with a 3D printed stamp on a commonly accessible and inexpensive moldable substrate such as 'blu tack'. Utilizing gallium-indium (Ga-In) liquid metal as the conductive element, we demonstrated our approach can create interactive and customizable electronic components such as switches, variable resistors, variable capacitors, logic gates and pressure sensors. In this paper, we present the design analogy of Flowcuits, DIY fabrication approach including a parametric 3D stamp design toolkit and results from a technical evaluation of the demonstrators. The stamps are printed with a low-cost 3D printer and all the materials are inexpensive and reusable, enabling Flowcuits to be easily used without any advance lab facilities. |
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| Keywords: |
Liquid Metal; Liquid Electronics; Fluidics; Playful Learning; Physical Computing; DIY; 3D-printed Stamp; Reusable Material |
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |