Venous Materials 互動材料 by Hila Mor is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2021 A' Design Award 銀獎 in 創意設計 Competition Category.

銀創意· 2021

Venous Materials 互動材料

by Hila Mor

Client: Tangible Media Group, MIT Media Lab

A' Design Award 銀獎 Winner in 創意 Category

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Colors

The Design

About Venous Materials 互動材料

靜脈材料係一種柔軟嘅互動材料，會根據觸摸而顯示動態圖案。呢個設計靈感嚟自植物、葉子同人體入面搵到嘅靜脈結構。當施加壓力或變形時，流體會喺內部通道中移動，產生可見嘅顏色同圖案變化。每一片都同時具備感應器同展示實體資訊嘅功能。呢種材料由PDMS矽膠同ecoline墨水製成，運用激光雕刻同人手實驗室工序。原型尺寸由5厘米乘5厘米到15厘米乘15厘米不等。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 銀獎

Venous Materials 互動材料是 A' Design Award 銀獎得主，這是授予頂級、華美而令人印象深刻的設計的極為崇高的認可。銀獎得主是極其卓越、極具創造力的作品，展現出其設計師傑出的專業技能、才華與敏銳。預計Venous Materials 互動材料將成為一件出色的典範之作，兼具非凡的專業性與深刻的創新性。這件贏得 A' Design Award 銀獎的設計是一項備受矚目、令人欽佩的發明，造福並拓展藝術、科學、設計和技術的界限。Venous Materials 互動材料是一件令人羨慕的創作，它喚起渴望，帶來積極的情感，並激發驚嘆與讚嘆。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: The Venous Materials project envisions a new way to design dynamic tangible interactions using fluidic structures. It is a new type of dynamic interactive material that is inspired by veins systems in nature: in plants, leaves, and throughout the human body. These Materials respond to user's pressure and motion with dynamic displayed patterns. Venous Materials can animate dynamic graphics, create responsive objects, and to visualize body movement and balance.
Dimensions & Packaging: The different Venous Materials prototypes are mainly 5cmX5cm, while some of them can get up to 15cmX15cm.
Tags: Interaction Design, Material research, Dynamic Graphics, Microfluidics, Computational Aided Design, Sensors and Displays, Venous Structures
Production Technology: Venous Materials technology developed through research on current Microfluidics,that is specifically designed for human interaction and UX design. A specilized computational tool was developed for the design process and to simulate and visualize of the color change and display of the flow within the material, according to the user input. Production process involves laser engraving and manual lab processes. Materials used are PDMS silicone and ecoline ink.
Design Challenge: While current computer chips and electronics usually require rigid and bulky components that challenges the integration with varied objects or fabrics, Venous Materials is soft and self-contained mechanism that utilizes the motion of daily activities as its energy source. Design of micro-fluid dynamics is not intuitive task, our approach and computational tool allows the design, simulation, and prototyping of fluidic interactive sensors that can be embedded in, or attached to, any object.
Research: This work present design and fabrication methods for interactive fluidic mechanisms that respond to deformation by mechanical inputs from the user. The Venous design tool provides designers with a simple way to create and validate designs of fluidic structures. It allows users to design the geometry, and simulate the flow with intended mechanical force dynamically. This leads to Interactive applications of Venous Materials, to augment human movement and everyday objects.
Inspiration: This project is inspired by venous structures that are ubiquitous throughout nature and in the human body. By changing colors, veins can inform us of internal and external physical conditions. For example, veins in leaves transmit pigments that drive color change, which informs us of the internal condition of the leaf and which season it is. When we press firmly on a button, the tip of our finger changes its color, this subtle color change can be used to indicate the applied pressure.
Project Duration: The project started June 2019 and finished April 2020 in Cambridge, MA, at the MIT Media Lab, Tangible Media group
Operation Flow: The displayed flow pattern and color change of the fluidic channels within Venous Materials inform the users of the motion and physical force that is applied on the material. The users can interact with Venous Materials by deforming or applying pressure on the material, which drives the fluid flow within the internal channels to visualize the dynamic responsive display. Therefore, Venous Materials simultaneously functions as a sensor and display of tangible information.
Patents: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Tangible Media Group / MIT Media Lab
Team Members: Hila Mor
Tianyu Yu
Ken Nakagaki
Benjamin Harvey Miller
Yichen Jia
Hiroshi Ishii
Image Credits: All Photo/video credit to Tangible Media Group, MIT Media Lab