NEWS During 30 and 31st of May, the International Conference of “How to 3D-Print a Wooden Home” was held at Sliperiet.
The conference was hosted by the Plus Project, a cross-disciplinary project incorporating different sectors from Umeå University, Rise Interactive among others. The department of Informatics was one of the main collaborators of this project.
– Our mission in this project was to envision new ways of light design in future 3D printed homes, says Fatemeh Moradi the Work Package Leader from the Department of Informatics.
She, later on, describes that in order to reach this knowledge and understanding, various workshops and design sessions were held and more than a dozen prototypes and design concepts were developed.
The conference contained a pavilion, exhibiting some of the prototypes made in the Plus Project. Two of the prototypes that were exhibited was made by students from the Master's Programme in Human-Computer Interaction and Social Media.
– Mikael Hansson and Felix-Marcel Petermann are two of our students that was showcasing their prototypes in this conference as an example of the prototypes that we have made during our work in the Plus Project, says Fatemeh
Below you can read about these two prototypes.
As part of a mission to reimagine ways of designing light in future 3D printed homes, an investigation was undertaken to how the light switch can be redesigned. In this regard, different alternative ways of controlling artificial light were envisioned and therefore different designs were 3D printed as the first step. “Light Magnets” are the finalized version of this design that consists of two 3D printed cubes. By placing these cubes in the right order, you can manage the light reflected via the light bulbs. By playing with this dice-like prototype you can turn the light on and off and also you can also you can control the quality of light. By changing the quality of light, we mean the light could become dimmer or brighter depending on how you place the “Light Magnets”. This prototype is an example of how 3D printing technologies can help us in redesigning light switch.
As we explored novel ways of light design within future 3D printed homes, we stumbled upon the idea of sensor-based spaces and the use of IoT in such homes. “Empathy Tree” is a conceptual prototype demonstrating such future examples of lighting. As known, every one of us can control and influence our emotions. However, our emotions could also be impacted by environmental factors such as noise or light. Our emotional states can be measured through our heart and respiratory rate, facial expressions and etc. “Empathy Tree” is based on the concept that via the use of EQ technology heart and respiratory frequencies could be registered and then reflected via light represented in the tree. The way that light has been used in this prototype is a representation of how with use of sensor-based technology and the idea of IoT can affect lighting in 3D printed Homes.
Editor: Fanny Routovaara