Printed Electronics for Human-Computer Interaction

A very brief introduction

Jürgen Steimle, MPI for Informatics February 20, 2015 · Saarbrücken, Germany

Agenda

� What is Printed Electronics? � Potential for HCI � Outlook

Printed Electronics

Printed electronics is a set of printing methods used to create electrical devices on various substrates. (Wikipedia)

� Organic electronics (inks contain carbon atoms) � Plastic electronics � Paper electronics

Graphic Printing: Traditional Art

� Patterned deposition process of color on a thin film substrate � Multi-layers for color images

Daniel R. Blume

From Graphic Printing to Functional Printing

Use of established printing methods • Inkjet printing • Screen printing • Offset printing • …

… and established printable substrates • Paper, Foils, Textiles, …

…with novel inks • Printable conductors and semi-conductors (e.g., silver

nanoparticles, conductive polymers, graphene…) • Dielectric • Insulators

…enables printing of electrical devices

Functional Printing

� RFID and Smart Labels � Flexible OLED lighting and displays � Biosensors � Printed photovoltaics � Batteries � Memory � Transistors -> simple logic circuits � …

1st Integrated Printed Electronics System

Continuously monitors temperature

� Temperature sensor (PST sensors) � Organic logic circuitry (PARC) � Rewritable memory (Thinfilm) � Electrochromic display (ACREO)

From Heiko Kempa, Institute of Print and Media Technology, Chemnitz University of Technology

Agenda

� What is Printed Electronics? � Potential for HCI

• Basic approaches • Sensors • Displays, speakers, actuators • Prototyping toolkits

� Outlook

From Heiko Kempa, Institute of Print and Media Technology, Chemnitz University of Technology

Potential for HCI: Input and Output

� Touch sensors � Multimodal sensor surfaces � Displays � Speakers � Actuators

� New form factors: thin, flexible, large-surface � Easy, fast, and inexpensive fabrication

Typical Approach in HCI � Only the I/O surface is printed � The other components are still “conventional”:

• I/O surface connected to rigid controller board • Reads out sensor data, Signal processing, Energy supply • Tethered or wireless connection to a computing device

Typical Printing Techniques in HCI

� Conductive inkjet printing with silver nanoparticle ink

� Screen printing with various commercial inks

Inkjet Printing + Digital process

• No printing plates • Perfect for low volume,

customized solutions, prototypes and demonstrators

+ Quite high resolution and high precise registration

+ Commodity hardware (!)

- Single layer printing on commodity printers

- Slow speed - Nozzles block

Screen Printing

+ Most used production technique

+ Large variety of substrates

+ Large variety of inks + Multi-layer printing

- Requires print mask - Slow speed

± Inexpensive tools, but

manual process ± Semi-automatic and

automatic printers available, but expensive

From Gunther Hübner, HdM

Agenda

� What is Printed Electronics? � Potential for HCI

• Basic approaches • Sensors • Displays, speakers, actuators • Prototyping toolkits

� Outlook

Conductive Inkjet Printing � Off-the-shelf inkjet printer � Silver nano particle-based conductive ink � Realize circuits, resistors, capacitors,

antennae � Single-layer printing

18

Y. Kawahara, S. Hodges, B. Cook, C. Zhang, G. Abowd: Instant Inkjet Circuits: Lab-based Inkjet Printing to Support Rapid Prototyping of UbiComp Devices, Proc. UbiComp, 2013

S. Hodges, Y. Kawahara, N. Gong, S. Olberding, J. Steimle: Building Functional Pervasive Computing Prototypes using Conductive Inkjet Printing, IEEE Pervasive Computing, 2014

Multimodal Touch Sensor: PrintSense � Thin-film, flexible sensor surface � Captures multi-modal input

• Multi-Touch • Pressure • Proximity • Deformation

� Custom shape � Single layer print

N. Gong, J. Steimle, S. Olberding, S. Hodges, N. Gillian, Y. Kawahara, J. Paradiso: PrintSense: A Versatile Sensing Technique to Support Multimodal Flexible Surface Interaction, Proc. ACM CHI, 2014

Aesthetic Design

Nan-Wei Gong, Amit Zoran, and Joseph A. Paradiso. Inkjet-printed conductive patterns for physical manipulation of audio signals. In Proc. UIST 13 Adjunct.

Large Surface: Sensor Floor

Nan-Wei Gong, Steve Hodges, and Joseph A. Paradiso. 2011. Leveraging conductive inkjet technology to build a scalable and versatile surface for ubiquitous sensing. Proc. UbiComp 11.

Cuttable Multi-Touch Sensor

S. Olberding, N. Gong, J. Tiab, J. Paradiso, J. Steimle: A Cuttable Multi-Touch Sensor, Proc. ACM UIST, 2013

Pressure Sensor: PyzoFlex

Rendl, C.; Greindl, P.; Haller, M.; Zirkl, M.; Stadlober, B. & Hartmann, P.: PyzoFlex: Printed Piezoelectric Pressure Sensing Foil. Proc. UIST 2012.

Deformation Sensor: FlexSense

Rendl, C.; Kim, D.; Fanello, S.; Parzer, P.; Rhemann, C.; Taylor, J.; Zirkl, M.; Scheipl, G.; Rothländer, T.; Haller, M. & Izadi, S.: FlexSense: A Transparent Self-sensing Deformable Surface, Proc. UIST 2014.

Agenda

� What is Printed Electronics? � Potential for HCI

• Basic approaches • Sensors • Displays, speakers, actuators • Prototyping toolkits

� Outlook

User-printed Displays: PrintScreen

Olberding, S.; Wessely, M. & Steimle, J.: PrintScreen: Fabricating Highly Customizable Thin-film Touch-displays, Proc. UIST 2014, 281-290

Paper Speakers

By Jess Rowland http://www.instructables.com/id/Paper-Speakers-1

Thin-Film Actuators: Self-folding hinges

Felton, S.; Tolley, T.; Shin B.; Onal C.; Demaine, E.; Rus D. & Wood, R.: Self-Folding with Shape Memory Composites. Soft Matter, 2013, 9, 27688.

Paper

Copper trace on polyimide sheet

Shape-memory polymer

Energy Harvesting: Paper Generators

Mustafa Emre Karagozler, Ivan Poupyrev, Gary K. Fedder, and Yuri Suzuki. 2013. Paper generators: harvesting energy from touching, rubbing and sliding. Proc. UIST 2013.

Agenda

� What is Printed Electronics? � Potential for HCI

• Basic approaches • Sensors • Displays, speakers, actuators • Prototyping toolkits

� Outlook

Prototyping Platform: Circuit Stickers

Steve Hodges, Nicolas Villar, Nicholas Chen, Tushar Chugh, Jie Qi, Diana Nowacka, and Yoshihiro Kawahara. Circuit stickers: peel-and-stick construction of interactive electronic prototypes. Proc. CHI 2014, 1743-1746.

Available at https://www.crowdsupply.com/chibitronics/circuit-stickers

Prototyping Platform: Printoo � Modular approach � Core module � Various sensor modules � Electrochromic display � Soft battery � … � Available at www.printoo.pt

Prototyping Platform: Fingies

Prototyping: Printing Methods

� Ask us for conductive inkjet printing and for screen printing / display printing

� We’re happy to help you get started with these technologies

Agenda

� What is Printed Electronics? � Potential for HCI � Outlook

Outlook

3D printed electronics Voxel8 printer

New materials: Elastic form factors Printable textiles

Thank you.