Weight and volume changing device with liquid metal transfer

Authors:
Ryuma Niiyama;Lining Yao;Hiroshi Ishii
Affiliations:
MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA;MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA;MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA
Venue:
Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction
Year:
2014

Citing 11
Cited 0

INVISIBLE: the shadow chaser

ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Emerging technologies
Gravity grabber: wearable haptic display to present virtual mass sensation

ACM SIGGRAPH 2007 emerging technologies
TILTle: exploring dynamic balance

Proceedings of the 2007 conference on Designing for User eXperiences
Weight-shifting mobiles: two-dimensional gravitational displays in mobile phones

CHI '10 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Radical atoms: beyond tangible bits, toward transformable materials

interactions
Shape-changing interfaces: a review of the design space and open research questions

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Shader printer

ACM SIGGRAPH 2012 Emerging Technologies
Jamming user interfaces: programmable particle stiffness and sensing for malleable and shape-changing devices

Proceedings of the 25th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology
Printed optics: 3D printing of embedded optical elements for interactive devices

Proceedings of the 25th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology
Fillables: everyday vessels as tangible controllers with adjustable haptics

CHI '13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Traxion: a tactile interaction device with virtual force sensation

Proceedings of the 26th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

This paper presents a weight-changing device based on the transfer of mass. We chose liquid metal (Ga-In-Tin eutectic) and a bi-directional pump to control the mass that is injected into or removed from a target object. The liquid metal has a density of 6.44g/cm3, which is about six times heavier than water, and is thus suitable for effective mass transfer. We also combine the device with a dynamic volume-changing function to achieve programmable mass and volume at the same time. We explore three potential applications enabled by weight-changing devices: density simulation of different materials, miniature representation of planets with scaled size and mass, and motion control by changing gravity force. This technique opens up a new design space in human-computer interactions.