Ceramics and screenless interface relate to my thesis project. I took my final for Computational Craft as an opportunity to dig into the subject. I began with the question of how might I use thermochromic ink to display visual state changes in ceramics? Upon digging into the research I found that ceramics and thermochromic are being combined, but not for visual display purposes. While my initial inclination was to do a materials study, through the process I found in an intriguing application of my idea. My prototyping process using polymer clay acted as initial steps in my proof of the concept for this exciting materials and display opportunity: tiles as a display. 

I went through a series of tests swatches through my prototyping phase. In the process, I made some interesting discoveries. Firstly, thermochromic ink can be incorporated in and survive the baking temperature of polymer clay. Secondly, one can also bake the resistive wire at this temperature. These points lead me to speculate that some very interesting jewelry or physical forms could be created using this process.

Challenges and Future Iterations

I had drawn the connection mentally between the idea of a LED matrix and of tile matrixes (as in the kind used to lay interior tiles in the home). However, I soon found that the electrical principals do not translate seamlessly between the two mediums. In my case, I used resistive wire to create the heat which changes each tile. This works well for single tiles, even in a series, but in terms of making an addressable grid of these tiles, a la LED matrix, I ran into an issue. As you know, electricity takes the path of least resistance. Consider if a tile matrix were set up in a LED matrix circuit fashion. How one would make a column of tiles change color when, considering the resistance, the electricity would stop at the first tile’s ground out? It remains unclear to me and having asked Liza as well as Adiel, the answer seems to lie is in individually addressable tile points which use a shift register with built-in MOFSET to regulate the power load. For my means, I solved this issue by treating each row of tile in my grid as a series. Sustained pulses of electricity from the Arduino and connected 9V battery built up the heat and created color change effectively. For my means, I solved this issue by treating each row of tile in my grid as a series. Sustained pulses of electricity from the Arduino and connected 9V battery built up the heat and created color change effectively. In future iterations, I plan to get my hands on a

For my means, I solved this issue by treating each row of tile in my grid as a series. Sustained pulses of electricity from the Arduino and connected 9V battery built up the heat and created color change effectively. For my means, I solved this issue by treating each row of tile in my grid as a series. Sustained pulses of electricity from the Arduino and connected 9V battery built up the heat and created color change effectively. In future iterations, I plan to get my hands on a TPIC6B595 chip and work on treating each tile effectively as a pixel. I also look forward to expanding on the materials side of this concept and working with earthenware clay.

I consider this idea my intellectual property and idea I intend to further it. Therefore I have created a purpose-abstracted Instructable which you can find here.

I started off by getting inspiration from the paper craft book in the Comp Craft locker. Man, that book is so cool. In the book, I found some interesting accordion folds. How perfect would that be for muscle wire, I thought, so perfect.  So I folded up cardstock, sewed and soldered in my muscle wire and tested it out. When the fan was folded together my muscle wire lost tension and the effect of the 10% shrinkage was invisible.

Undeterred, I tried a flat to folded method. That one worked and I made a button to go with the interaction. You pinch the fold to fold the paper. See the video below!

Summary: Liza was right that this stuff is tough to work with. In the future, I’d use a slightly thinner paper and thread the muscle wire through the folds with the metal crimps intermittently in order to hold it in place and provide the shrinking fan effect that I’d originally envisioned.

I had some rubber casting supplies left over from a project last spring. What I wondered was if it would respond well to thermochromatic ink. And yes, I discovered, it works very well. The mix I used was about 1/2 tsp red, 1/4 tsp blue and an equal mix of part A and part B of the silicone rubber casting goo- about 4tbsp worth.

Mix well. Use gloves and be in a well-ventilated area. I poured the mix into the lids of three small cups and laid the stainless steel thread into the goo.

When cured (6hrs), the rubber was nicely reactive to temperature. However the thread I laid into the mix had become too resistive in the rubber and would not conduct enough to heat the matrix. To solve this, I sewed some stainless steel thread into the rubber. This solved the issue and worked quite well.

After a series of unsuccessful tests, I chose to follow an Instructables tutorial called “woven paper cup speaker” for my swatch. You can see the full thing here.

It was a fairly simple process. I changed the build slightly by using espresso cups (cute) instead of full size cups. First you poke 1cm apart homes around the rim then set up the warp (the spoke-like thread matrix) for your weaving. Using conductive and non-conductive thread, work your way around the warp in traditional weaving fashion (under, over, under, over) making sure to alternate rounds with each thread so the conductive thread doesn’t touch itself. Keep this up and in no time you’ll be done! These work pretty well, which leads me to wonder if it’d be possible to change up the structure or the scale (see inspiration below).