The rototack: designing a computationally-enhanced craft item

Authors:
Tom Wrensch;Glenn Blauvelt;Mike Eisenberg
Affiliations:
Department of Computer Science and Institute of Cognitive Science, Campus Box 430, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO;Department of Computer Science and Institute of Cognitive Science, Campus Box 430, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO;Department of Computer Science and Institute of Cognitive Science, Campus Box 430, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
Venue:
DARE '00 Proceedings of DARE 2000 on Designing augmented reality environments
Year:
2000

Citing 9
Cited 7

Knowledge-based augmented reality

Communications of the ACM - Special issue on computer augmented environments: back to the real world
Programmable bricks: toys to think with

IBM Systems Journal
Tangible bits: towards seamless interfaces between people, bits and atoms

Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human factors in computing systems
Digital manipulatives: new toys to think with

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
The programmable hinge: toward computationally enhanced crafts

Proceedings of the 11th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology
Middle tech: blurring the division between high and low tech in education

The design of children's technology
Integrating craft materials and computation

C&C '99 Proceedings of the 3rd conference on Creativity & cognition
Distributed MEMS: New Challenges for Computation

IEEE Computational Science & Engineering
Soft toys with computer hearts: building personal storytelling environments

CHI EA '97 CHI '97 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pin&Play: Networking Objects through Pins

UbiComp '02 Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Ubiquitous Computing
As we may print: new directions in output devices and computational crafts for children

Proceedings of the 2003 conference on Interaction design and children
PINS push in and POUTS pop out: creating a tangible pin-board that ejects physical documents

CHI '05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Rapid construction of functioning physical interfaces from cardboard, thumbtacks, tin foil and masking tape

UIST '06 Proceedings of the 19th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology
Augmenting refrigerator magnets: why less is sometimes more

Proceedings of the 4th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction: changing roles
The iterative development of a tangible pin-board to symmetrically link physical and digital documents

Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
Hybrid crafting: towards an integrated practice of crafting with physical and digital components

Personal and Ubiquitous Computing

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

This paper describes our progress in creating a device called a rototack. In its design, the rototack is an example of a computationally-enhanced craft item: a small, robust, inexpensive, and versatile — but also programmable — physical object for use in a variety of educational and home crafting projects. In particular, the tack is a source of rotational motion, suitable for turning light objects or for powering (e.g.) cams, gears, and linkages in complex, user-defined patterns. We describe the engineering decisions and trade-offs involved in creating our current prototype of the tack; discuss the central issues in creating a programming language and environment for the device; and sketch a variety of potential uses to which the tack might be put.