BODYNET
FUTURE WEARABLES ECOSYSTEM
Human Centered Design | Concept Development | Technology Forecasting | Electronics, VR/AR, Soft Goods Prototyping | Interaction Design | User Research | Adobe CS
It's not about measurement, it's about super powers. Current wearable devices struggle to engage users because they provide data when they could be creating new abilities. Researchers across six departments at Stanford - Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Product Design - teamed up with Samsung in their Global Research Outreach program to develop stretchable electronics - "elastronics" - and explore future avenues to apply the technology. In the span of a two-year Masters program, I worked with product design research partners to imagine concept applications and scenarios, build a variety of physical and digital mockups, present to Samsung leadership, and author a published Nature article. Our concept development culminated in the idea of the bodyNET, a multi-layered network of sensors, screens, and smart devices on and in the body that bridges the digital and physical worlds.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
"Bring on the bodyNET" article published in Nature, two-year funding extension awarded
Featured on Wareable online news
BRING ON THE BODYNET
Select the image above or click here to open the full Nature article.
SUMMARY
a world beyond smartphones
What will the future look like beyond smart phones? Several areas of developing technology like continuous monitoring systems, stretchable electronic skin, smart clothing, wearables, and IoT suggest that current electronics capabilities as well as new abilities altogether could shift from the two-dimensional world to our three-dimensional reality.
If these technologies are combined in a bodyNET ecosystem, lives could be drastically improved. Qualities that exemplify humanity like physicality, empathy, communication, culture, and creativity could be brought to the forefront of technological advancement. And instead of using the black boxes in our pockets, we could use our bodies as central digital interfaces.
A BODYNET FUTURE
The video above shows our first VR prototype to simulate a bodyNET future. We leveraged mixed reality devices as prototyping tools because of their short iteration cycles and ability to capture interactions and environments. This shield prototype, for example, immediately produced negative reactions due to its spatial invasiveness and text reliance. Further VR/AR iterations then avoided visual barriers and incorporated visual feedback like glowing auras to indicate mood.
smart clothing concept development
By moving core processors and power to large surfaces like the back, peripheral device volumes could be drastically reduced, becoming socially acceptable and modular for the first time. A mixed reality device might look just like sunglasses, for example. Stretchable contact pads where glasses traditionally sit could transmit data and power, turning the device on and off when the glasses are taken on and off. Voice commands could be received by a microphone while audio output might take the form of bone conducting transducers behind the ears.
When traveling in the future, mixed reality assistance might be as simple as putting these smart glasses on. Immersive, spatial experiences could also be stored and shared through 360-degree camera and microphone arrays in our clothing. With networks of users, experiences like sports games and music festivals could be composited from an entire group of people attending the event. Our smart clothing mockup demonstrated a low-fidelity version of this concept with a pinhole camera mounted just below the back collar. The camera (using a Raspberry Pi) streamed a live video feed online, creating literal eyes in the back of the head.
facial elastronics concept
We also developed concept renderings of elastronic devices on the face as one of the most challenging areas to design for. Inspiration was drawn from cultural areas of fashion, traditional decorative markings, and existing consumer products. Simple, geometric shapes were created to accentuate facial contours rather than masking them. Color, material, and finish could eventually be customizable and range from the transparent raw material to metallic, jewelry-like options.
energy TRANSFER mockup
In this prototype, we imagined the ability to seamlessly transfer of energy from the body to a peripheral device (figure below). This was achieved by placing an inductive charging transmitter into a glove and a receiver in the device mockup. The transmitter was wired to a battery pack attached on the body. We envision peripheral devices placed anywhere on the body according to a user's needs. When a peripheral device comes in proximity to transmitters extending from central energy storage on the back (like this glove prototype), the user transfers the energy from their battery to the external device. Incorporating energy harvesting into this system could change our relationship to personal electronics from passively charging inanimate objects to actively transferring our own energy to electronic extensions of ourselves.
bodynet pregnancy storyboard
The bodyNET concept is centered around the idea of becoming super human - not as a select group of all-powerful individuals, but a global society that is interconnected with technology strengthening existing human qualities. To illustrate this concept, several scenarios were developed using storyboard renderings. One of the most impactful scenarios involves a young couple starting a family.
Pauline and Rex both find out about her pregnancy at the moment of conception with the help of sensors that continuously monitor her status. While her baby is developing, peripheral imaging devices connected to her smart clothing provide constant updates on her baby's progress. When her baby reaches milestones, like its first kick, not only can Pauline feel it, but Rex can feel it too - through haptic feedback. This highlights an exciting new ability. Interconnected bodyNETs could physically connect individuals at a distance to create shared experiences that were once impossible.
As a new mother, Pauline becomes anxious about what she believes is the onset of labor, but her bodyNET identifies false contractions. When she does go into labor, an alert is sent to the local hospital so caregivers can prepare for her arrival. A self-driving car with optimized navigation is also prompted to immediately pick up the couple and escort them to the hospital. The parents can't always be physically present with their baby, but they want to know what the baby needs as soon as it happens. Fortunately, they receive notifications which, in this case, wake Rex up to change diapers and give Pauline more rest since she just fell asleep.
hot hand DEVELOPMENT
Much of our efforts were focused on prototyping peripheral devices that could enhance users’ natural abilities or empower them with newfound ones. These prototypes represent an entire category of elastronic devices that could be developed in the future. In this prototype, we applied Dr. David Eagleman's concept of sensory substitution by allowing the user to experience heat at a distance through vibration. Typically, digital information is presented through a display. By encoding the digital information into haptics, we tried to bypass the steps of viewing and processing that information, producing an instantaneous reaction with an augmented sense.
We started by connecting an infrared temperature sensor to an Arduino microprocessor, which was programmed to encode temperature data as a set of three distinct vibration patterns. Patterns were outputted in a matrix of nine vibration motors across three fingers, which increased resolution and bandwidth of transmitted information compared to a single motor. Etching traces by hand was the most difficult step in the process because it was an inexact manual step that needed to be very precise. After printing with wax-based ink as a mask, we soaked the Kapton in a bath of etching liquid (ferric chloride) with only a rough estimate of how long it would take. The reaction was watched closely for the right removal time and took 3 attempts to achieve a uniform traces that were full thickness and free of disconnections. Finally, the electronics were attached to a glove for testing.
hot hand mockup
hot hand DEMO
Key learnings
Consider the future world when imagining future technologies—our team’s creativity was unlocked when we shifted from trying to imagine individual product concepts to roadmapping the future technology ecosystem. Once we had that world established, the flow of product concepts and storytelling came naturally.
VR/AR is a powerful prototyping tool—mixed reality devices could have been used from the beginning of this project as a central prototyping environment for both hardware concepts as well as experiential simulations.
Be clear about prototype fidelity/purpose—more intentionality around identifying types of prototypes (i.e. functional/cosmetic/interactive) would have helped align expectations.