PneUI: Pneumatic Soft Interfaces

PneUI: Pneumatically Driven Soft Composite Material for Shape-Changing User Interfaces
from Tangible Media Group

“We present PneUI, an enabling technology to build shape-changing interfaces through pneumatically-actuated soft composite materials. The composite materials integrate the capabilities of both input sensing and active shape output. This is enabled by the composites’ multi-layer structures with different mechanical or electrical properties. The shape changing states are computationally controllable through pneumatics and pre-defined structure. We explore the design space of PneUI through four applications: height changing buildingstangible phicons, a morphing barshape changing mobile, a transformable tablet cases and a shape shifting lamp.

http://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/pneui-pneumatically-driven-soft-composite-material/