Adaptive and Informative Skin
Working prototypeAn everyday object, a torch, is redesigned to use the principles of tangible interaction to convey important information about battery status, and usage is redesigned to fit.
Assembling the laser-cut parts
Prototype of skin wrinklesSolo project
Activities:
Research
Visual Design
Interaction Design
Working Prototype
Digital Solidworks model for injection moulding
Solidworks model of working prototype
Exploded version of model for production
Technical drawings of partsThis project was all about conveying information not through displays but through the skin of a product. I decided to make a flashlight that would shrink, resulting in a wrinkly skin and a shorter flashlight, as the battery emptied.
The goal of this project for me was to create a real life object, but with the interaction design I prefer in an everyday product, and then to make this as ready for production as is possible for me.
The presentation model was constructed from lots of laser cut MDF rings, sanded to make a smooth surface imitating a plastic. The flashlight gave off light, and grew shorter and wrinkly over time. A more advanced solidworks model ready for injection moulding was also made.