The emerging ubiquity of low cost digital fabrication technologies such as 3D printing and laser cutting tools coupled with the popularity of local and online making communities such as Tech Shops, Maker Spaces, Fab Labs, Esty, Thingiverse, and Ponoko, have empowered individuals and groups to participate in the creative act of making in new and remarkable ways. This "maker movement" as it is often called, is radically transformative, affecting education, manufacturing, healthcare, and the economy. However, the creative design tools and mechanisms for knowledge capture and sharing lag behind. This project will develop new software tools for promoting creative and rapid design exploration using digital fabrication equipment as well as a novel sensor for capturing and identifying workshop activities for learning and tutorial creation. The software and hardware approaches proposed will broaden participation by a new community of non-engineers, enabling everyday individuals to not just easily enter the emerging world of digital fabrication but to be leading participants in this important technological and cultural phenomenon.
This project includes a set of focused studies and the design of several new physical interactive technologies for capturing and expressing a broad range of physical making and prototyping activities. Specifically, it involves building and evaluating two technologies: first, MetaMorphe, a web-based system to enable more rapid and dynamic design exploration of 3D physical designs for digital fabrication, and second, FabSense, a ring-worn wireless inertial sensor for capturing and identifying a user's activities scoped within the landscape of making with workshop hand tools. While this proposal plans to provide significant functionality in these system, it also argues for an increased foregrounding of the creative process, an improved inclusion of everyday tools, and a capturing of the analog experience of making.
