2. Roadmap
Background & Motivation
Related Work
Current State of Affairs
Proposed Work
Risks, Limitations, and Outcomes
3. The Era of Personal Fabrication
Gershenfeld and Anderson
Unprecedented ability for individuals to manufacture on
a small scale
3D printing a major focus
4. 3D Printing and Children
3D printing is permeating educational spaces and can
be a tool for learning
Support for novice designers can be better – download &
print is not meaningful
Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) informed by embodied
cognition and constructionist traditions is a promising
avenue for research
5. Goals
Design a class of TUIs that facilitate exploration, play, and
design for 3D printers.
Draw on the history of tangible learning tools and
embodied cognition to situate and inform the TUI designs
Evaluate the TUIs to gauge usability and learning
potential among tweens and young teens (11-14)
6. Related Work: Major Themes
“Things to Learn With” – educational objects
Embodied Cognition – a body-centric view of cognitive
development
Embodied Interfaces – „smart‟ tangible devices, that
combine ideas from both
8. Related Work: Embodied Cognition
Cognitive processes are „deeply rooted‟ in physical
interactions (e.g. learning readiness by hand gesture)
Embodied Mathematics – collection, construction, stick
manipulations, walking along a path
Embodied Design – encouraging thinking through doing
9. Related Work: Embodied Interfaces
Tangibles + Embodied Cognition = Embodied Interfaces
Digital Manipulatives (Resnick)
Tangible Bits (Ishii)
Embodied Design (Klemmer et al., Antle)
10. Related Work: Approaches
Modeling Tools
„Smart‟ Blocks
Interactive Fabrication Tools
3D Printing
18. UCube: Study 1
14 Participants – 5 girls, 9
boys
5 groups of 2, 1 group of 4
Screen-based modeling
tasks – side by side
screens, one live, one
target shape
5 target shapes: straight
vertical line, diagonal
line, a cube, a triangular
prism, and an irregular
polyhedron
19. UCube: Study 1 Results
4 groups (including the
group of four) completed
all the shapes
1 group ran out of time
after 3 shapes
1 group modeled 1 shape
Sessions lasted 17-30
minutes
24/30 tasks successful – 80%
20. UCube: Study 2
10 participants: 8 boys, 2 girls
2 exercises: modeling &
matching
9 shapes, cube in each (10 tasks)
Modeling: model on UCube from
3D-printed models
Progression from
memory, holding shape, using
software
Matching: given a set of lights on
the UCube, choose the correct
3D-printed model out of a set
21. Study 2 Results: Modeling
Five shapes: cube, a
tetrahedron, a diamond, a house
(a cube with a pyramid on
top), and an irregular polyhedron
• 21 of 50 from memory
• 12 of 50 holding model
• 8 of 50 with software
Total = 41/50 or 82%
Of 9 misses, 7 were irregular
polygon
Remaining misses both from
same participant (the youngest)
22. Study 2 Results: Matching
Of 50 matching tasks, 0
objects were chosen
incorrectly
Most matches were
completed in 20 seconds or
less
23. SnapCAD: Hardware
Formerly UCube v2
7x7x7 input space (343
points)
Removable magnetic LED
boards – multiple
colors, multiple
shapes, multi-player games
More robust, studier design
Bigger, more
immersive, more
embodied?
24. SnapCAD: Software
Multiple colors of convex
hull
3D Tic-Tac-Toe
implementation
Minimal Spanning Tree
(MST) mode
Edit mode for path & MST
Width slider for path & MST
All exportable to .STL
25. PopCAD
Pop-Up Book, paper-
friendly electronics
Lighter, Cheaper, Portable
3x3x3 input space –
27 input points
Capacitive switches toggle
LEDs on and off
Software has been
adapted for PopCAD
27. SnapCAD
Focus on multi-shape and mutli-
player capabilities
Colors++, Avoid Red+Green
Explore 2-shape modeling
operations –
union, difference, intersection
Two shapes occupying the same
point
Other modeling modes - Curves?
Voronoi mesh? Recursion?
2 paths, 2 minimal spanning trees
28. PopCAD
Exploration of paper as
material – can paper
mechanisms give rise to new
modeling operations?
Embedding new sensors
Multiple, networked, pop-up
books? Gives rise to other
kinds of
cooperative/competitive
operations
Redesign – switch
placement, tower
spacing, paper choice, origin
marker
30. User Study 1: SnapCAD
12-30 Participants, 11-14
years old
6 exercises: hull
modeling, path
modeling, mst modeling, 2
hull modeling, 3D tic-tic-
toe, „freehand‟ activity
Hull, path, mst – brief
demo, then 3 modeling tasks
from 3D-printed models
2 hull – model from side-by-
side screen comparison (x3)
Tic-Tac-Toe – 3 games
Freehand exercise to gauge
expressiveness, desired
capabilities
Measure successful
completion (or lack
thereof), time to
completion, and
observational notes
User instructed to think aloud
Audio, Video, and screen
capture for additional
analysis
31. User Study 2: PopCAD
10-15 Participants, 11-14
years old
3 modeling exercises plus
freehand activity
Convex hull, path, minimal
spanning tree
5 3D-printed shapes for
each mode
Measure successful
completion (or lack
thereof), time to
completion, and
observational notes
Track new vs. overlapping
participants
User to think aloud
Photography and Screen
Capture for further analysis
32. Timeline
Task Timeline Notes
User Study Logistics Sept-Oct IRB & Site Approval
Technical Additions Sept-Oct As Outlined in Proposed Work
Conduct User Studies Nov-Jan SnapCAD & PopCAD Studies
Write Up Results Feb-March Analyze & Write Up Data
Write Dissertation April-June Put it all together
Defend Dissertation June Defend
33. Risks
These are unproven interfaces – may be completely
unsuitable
May be useable, but viscerally unappealing to target
group
Practical roadblocks: device malfunction, loss of study
data, lack of sufficient participants
34. Limitations
Many modeling operations are impossible
(curves, scaling, extrusion, etc.)
Not a catch-all or professional solution, but a part of an
„ecosystem‟ of next generation fabrication tools
Learning outcomes are not truly being measured, merely
hinted at through the related literature and the user
studies
35. Outcomes
Argue convincingly that embodied + tangible devices
can aid in modeling for 3D printing
Suggest scaffolding of mathematical and spatial
reasoning skills
Make comparisons between devices, modeling modes,
tasks
36. Conclusions
A novel body of work: 3 devices, 4 user studies
Significant contribution that is timely and important
A path for future research on embodied devices for
digital fabrication
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