Invention, Intellectual Property and Income
This project started as an academic research project originating in material-driven research exploration of thermoplastics and soft silicone rubbers as pneumatic soft robotics actuators.
My goal for Fab Academy was to develop the interface - to learn designing and producing circuits that would enable interaction and actuation building upon the research I had done at Fabricademy. The next future step is to integrate the findings from both courses and further develop the prototype to incorporate a wider range of sensations that could be generated with the soft robots.
As soft robotics are not widely used for haptic feedback systems, it is a promising avenue for future research. I would want to publish findings from the research on sensations in the form of an academic paper that I would submit to journals and conferences on HCI and specifically tangible interfaces. I could also submit the project for exhibition parts of conferences on the topic, as many of them, besides paper presentations, also offer physical project showcases.
Haptic feedback devices pose a certain problem when it comes to their presentation. Neither pictures nor videos properly showcase the experience or sensations provoked by them on the surface of the skin. Therefore, online documentation and written descriptions do not afford a proper demonstration of the haptic features. I will aim to exhibit the project in physical exhibitions whenever possible to allow the audience the full experience and be able to gather their feedback.
I extended the project in collaboration with Anastasia Pistofidou (The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, IAAC, Barcelona & Fabricademy) and Ricardo O’Nascimento (Royal College of Art, London), resulting in a research paper presented at the Extended Senses & Embodying Technology Symposium 2022 at the University of Greenwich titled “Crafting Sensations: an exploration of digital fabrication methods applied to inflatable actuators for embodied interaction”.
We are currently planning to revise the paper according to peer review and feedback, specifically focusing on the evaluation part. A working device that would replace hand-operated syringes and a web interface allowing us to control the actuators will certainly be helpful in the user testing of the experience. Especially the air pressure sensors incorporated in the devices would give us an option to set and monitor the intensity of sensations with high accuracy. With that feature, we would be able to compare the sensations reported by our evaluation group in relation to the level of inflation inside the actuators. This data enables replication of the same experience on multiple subjects and collecting their responses. The web interface and custom controls over the inflation would also afford us ways to fine-tune the experience. User testing involving different geometries of actuators will impose some problems; however, I may need to rethink the bracelet design in a way that would allow changing the actuator in the bracelet instead of casting them as one piece.
This project could also be my master's thesis project and paper at Aalto University, which would be published in the university's open theses database. Orienting the project towards academic research would also enable specific grant applications and funding opportunities.
This research may also lead to alternative future applications, namely in haptic interfaces for VR experiences. There is also a promising path to apply it to physical rehabilitation purposes, as the different sensations generated on the body may help alleviate nerve damage and foster tissue recovery.
As for now, to retain the full spectrum of options for the future, I would like to keep all my rights to the content of this website reserved. Therefore, at the time of writing this (29.06.2023), I do not grant licensing opportunities. This may change in the future as the project evolves into certain directions and becomes more defined and as I become better informed about my own options. Some avenues require exclusive ownership of content with no prior licensing history associated with it, making the content available for licensing could interfere with that at some point, but it remains an option to consider once I clarify the situation.