Papers by Katia Cánepa Vega
Due to the climate change effects, the average temperature in the 2100s might be between 2 and 9.... more Due to the climate change effects, the average temperature in the 2100s might be between 2 and 9.7°F warmer- an excessive heat wave beyond human tolerance. CJ-2050 is a speculative wearable device that provides body cooling through a jewelry design when in direct contact with the skin. Cold water constantly travels through dedicated tubes to reduce the body's temperature at key points in the circulation system. A Peltier module structure has been utilized to keep the water cold and a pump system irrigates the water through the tubes. This project aims at reimagining our daily jewelry in a dystopia that may not be too far away with a wearable design that intertwines body heating regulation, speculative jewelry design, and aesthetics.
Human-computer interaction series, 2016
Wearable Computing had changed the way individuals interact with computers, intertwining natural ... more Wearable Computing had changed the way individuals interact with computers, intertwining natural capabilities of the human body with processing apparatus. But most of this technology had been designed just for clothing or accessories and it is still flat and rigid, giving the wearer a cyborg look. Beauty Technology, based on electromagnetic devices that are embedded into non-invasive beauty products, opens new possibilities for interacting with different surfaces and devices. It locates wearable technologies on the body surface and makes use of muscle movements as an interactive interface. This work introduces the term Beauty Technology as an emergent field in Wearable Computing. It discusses the materials and processes used for developing the Beauty Tech prototypes and present some examples of the use of beauty technologies in everyday beauty products.
Human-computer interaction series, 2016
Given today’s wearables revolution, the human body is becoming a new design standpoint. Thus, the... more Given today’s wearables revolution, the human body is becoming a new design standpoint. Thus, the next logical step in wearable computing seems to be the use of the body’s roughly two square meters of skin as a canvas for applying sensors and attaching other computing devices in ways that enhance human experience. The body renewable surface, i.e., the skin, nails and hair plays crucial roles as a protective barrier, sensory monitor, heat and moisture regulator, and an integral part of the body’s immune system. Nevertheless, humanity, since its inception, has used beauty products to adorn the body for a variety of reasons. Nowadays, even remaining mostly aesthetically oriented beauty products are quite sophisticated given the advances in chemistry. This chapter introduces “Beauty Technology,” a Wearable Computing subfield that uses the body’s surface as an interactive platform by integrating technology into beauty products applied directly to one’s skin, fingernails, and hair.
Proceedings of the 2022 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing
Figure 1: A. Sweatcessory prototype. B. Biosensor components. C. Electrode fabrication process. D... more Figure 1: A. Sweatcessory prototype. B. Biosensor components. C. Electrode fabrication process. D. Example of painted electrode.
Eight International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction
IEEE Pervasive Computing
This year marks the 25th edition of ISWC-International Symposium on Wearable Computers-which is t... more This year marks the 25th edition of ISWC-International Symposium on Wearable Computers-which is the leading research venue for all the topics related to wearables. The conference was held September 21st-24th, 2021, with workshops dedicated to specialized research topics further extending into the 26th. ISWC was co-hosted with the 2021 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, as has been the case for a few years.
Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, 2019
DOOR is an artwork that aims at exposing some of the social and political impact of artificial in... more DOOR is an artwork that aims at exposing some of the social and political impact of artificial intelligence, computer vision, and automation. The project uses a commercially available computer vision system that predicts the interactor's ethnicity, and locks or unlocks itself depending on this prediction. The artwork showcases a possible use of computer vision making explicit the fact that every technological implantation crystallises a political worldview.
BOX is an artwork that exposes some of the social and political impact of artificial intelligence... more BOX is an artwork that exposes some of the social and political impact of artificial intelligence, computer vision, and automation. The project uses a commercially available computer vision system that predicts the interactor's ethnicity, and locks or unlocks itself depending on this prediction. The artwork showcases a possible use of computer vision, making explicit the fact that every technological implantation crystallises a political worldview.
The increasing advances in electronics allows smaller and more powerful devices, bringing wearabl... more The increasing advances in electronics allows smaller and more powerful devices, bringing wearable computing closer to reality. However, most wearable computers are very distinguished and placed on clothes and accessories. This book tries to tackle this phenomenon by introducing a new wearable computing subfield called beauty technology. By using the body's surface as an interactive platform, the integration of technology into beauty products is explored and can be applied directly to ones skin, fingernails, and hair adding new functionality to beauty products using technology in a personal, seamless and fashionable way. An interdisciplinary approach is taken, exploring the design of Beauty Technologies such as Conductive Makeup, Tech Nails, Hairware and FX e-makeup in order to create novel interfaces for Human Computer Interaction.
Proceedings of the 2020 International Symposium on Wearable Computers, 2020
Dental braces are a semi-permanent dental treatment that are in direct contact with our metabolis... more Dental braces are a semi-permanent dental treatment that are in direct contact with our metabolism (saliva), food and liquids we ingest, and our environment while smiling or talking. This paper introduces braceIO, biochemical ligatures on dental braces that change colors depending on saliva concentration levels (pH, nitric oxide and acid uric), and can be read by an external device. This work presents our fabrication process of the ligatures and external device, and the technical evaluation of the absorption time, colori-metric measurement tests and the color map to the biosensor level in the app. This project aims to maintain the shape, wearability and aesthetics of traditional ligatures but with embedded biosensors. We propose a novel device that senses metabolism changes with a different biosensor ligature worn in each tooth to access multiple biodata and create seamless interactive devices.
Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces: Companion, 2019
A landscape site plan is a graphic representation to show the arrangement of landscape items(like... more A landscape site plan is a graphic representation to show the arrangement of landscape items(like trees, buildings, and paths) from a top view. Restyling a site plan includes adjusting the colors, textures and other artistic customization, which is the task that landscape architects spend more time to work on nowadays. Landscape-freestyle shows the potential of using machine learning for automatically restyling landscape site plans. Landscape-freestyle recognizes the features (locations and sizes) of each item (trees, buildings, and paths) by an object-recognition algorithm on a styled site plan or by reading data directly on an AutoCAD file site plan. The user can choose to upload a template image offered by themselves or a preset style template offered by Landscape-freestyle for restyling. If they upload templates themselves, a style-recognition algorithm is used to identify the items and their artistic customization from the template image and use it for styling. This work presen...
Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2021
Microbe-HCI is a community whose works implicate microorganisms in HCI. This special interest gro... more Microbe-HCI is a community whose works implicate microorganisms in HCI. This special interest group is a venue for the frst gathering of the community, ofering an opportunity for networking and structured discussions. It encourages participation from both active and new researchers to microbe-HCI, with the objective of acquiring an overview of people, themes, trends, and prospective research pathways for the community. • Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI); Interactive systems and tools; Interaction design theory, concepts and paradigms; • Hardware → Bio-embedded electronics; • Applied computing → Education.
Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 2020
This paper introduces the Sustainable Prototyping Life Cycle for Digital Fabrication, an adaptati... more This paper introduces the Sustainable Prototyping Life Cycle for Digital Fabrication, an adaptation from the Life Cycle Assessment method that presents the environmental impact of digital fabrication in every phase of prototyping. The cycle has four phases: raw materials acquisition, manufacturing and distribution, use, and end of life. It presents designers as manufacturers of their own materials for digital fabrication, and bio-based materials are used as an alternative and sustainable prototyping material. We interviewed ten experts in digital fabrication and introduced the use of bio-based materials such as mycelium-composite for prototyping with digital fabrication.Using experts' reflections, we conducted a workshop about the environmental impact of prototyping with 22 design students. We reported their decisions on materials used for prototyping and their perception of using myceliumcomposite within the Sustainable Prototyping Life Cycle. Our aim is to increase environmental awareness in prototyping and highlight the importance of designers' decision-making through the cycle.
Proceedings of the 2020 International Symposium on Wearable Computers, 2020
Figure 1: Eslucent is an eyelid on-skin interface for tracking eye-blinking. (a) The on-skin inte... more Figure 1: Eslucent is an eyelid on-skin interface for tracking eye-blinking. (a) The on-skin interface consists of 6 layers. Each layer is shown individually, layered on top of each other. The color of Esculent can be customized, for example, with (b) silver and (c) black eyeliner.
Adjunct Proceedings of the 2019 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2019 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers, 2019
Figure 1: (a) CNC carving and Laser engraving tests. (b) Mycelium for embedding electronics. (c) ... more Figure 1: (a) CNC carving and Laser engraving tests. (b) Mycelium for embedding electronics. (c) Mycelium as a enclosure for electronics (Arduino UNO and Circuit Playground) (d) Mycelium as an electronic component (Bio-breadboard).
GetMobile: Mobile Computing and Communications, 2018
Can tattoos reveal changes in human physiology? The Dermal Abyss (d-abyss) presents an approach t... more Can tattoos reveal changes in human physiology? The Dermal Abyss (d-abyss) presents an approach to biointerfaces in which the body surface is rendered an interactive display. Traditional tattoo inks are replaced with biosensors whose colours or intensity change in response to variations of biomarkers in the interstitial fluid. The Dermal Abyss is designed to use the aesthetics, permanence, and visible nature of tattoos to encode diagnostic information. Here, tattoo biosensors were designed to report on the concentration of sodium ions, glucose, and pH in the skin. We report the preliminary quantitative evaluation of these biosensors in an ex vivo skin model by assessing their visibility of color changes from the dermis. This work provides a proof of concept of a platform in which the skin reveals information inside the body, tattoos form wearable displays within the skin, and the body's metabolism works as an input for the d-abyss biosensors.
Journal of Textile Engineering & Fashion Technology, 2018
Nowadays, battery life is one of the most challenges issues in the development of Wearable Techno... more Nowadays, battery life is one of the most challenges issues in the development of Wearable Technologies. However, the light exposure of our body extends the possibilities of solar energy harvesting on Wearables. We propose a novel approach to intertwine solar cells and materials for energy harvesting through clothing and accessories' surfaces for creating self-charging devices and power generation. This paper presents IntiWear: an approach for using dye-doped acrylic as a solar energy concentrator for Wearables. The material we use is Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA or Acrylic Glass) that was doped dyed to concentrate energy. This material is commonly used for harvesting energy through furniture, windows and buildings' surfaces that are exposed to the sun. For the purposes of this project, these pieces are in direct contact to the solar cells to concentrate and harvest energy from the PMMA pieces. The solar cells are cut in triangle and square shapes, and attached to the side of the PMMA pieces in order to not totally expose the solar cell. IntiWear's design incorporate PMMA into fashion where the solar cells are hidden, each energy concentrator becomes a clothing adornment, and the shape and colors are customizable. This paper shows different tests of the PMMA doped dye and our circuit performance. It also describes the development of two applications: a solar coat as a power bank for charging Smartphones and a self-charging purse that lights up whenever it is opened. The aim of the project is to generate sustainable energy by the use of an alternative solution for solar cells in Wearables that is efficient, customizable and fashionable.
Proceedings of the 29th Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, 2016
Figure 1: Fluxa: a POV display that foster social, physical interactions. (a. long-distance commu... more Figure 1: Fluxa: a POV display that foster social, physical interactions. (a. long-distance communication: "HELLO" text scrolling, b. overlaying display of an equation answer, c. image display in hand, d. showing biological data while running )
Human–Computer Interaction Series, 2016
Wearable Computing had changed the way individuals interact with computers, intertwining natural ... more Wearable Computing had changed the way individuals interact with computers, intertwining natural capabilities of the human body with processing apparatus. But most of this technology had been designed just for clothing or accessories and it is still flat and rigid, giving the wearer a cyborg look. Beauty Technology, based on electromagnetic devices that are embedded into non-invasive beauty products, opens new possibilities for interacting with different surfaces and devices. It locates wearable technologies on the body surface and makes use of muscle movements as an interactive interface. This work introduces the term Beauty Technology as an emergent field in Wearable Computing. It discusses the materials and processes used for developing the Beauty Tech prototypes and present some examples of the use of beauty technologies in everyday beauty products.
Proceedings of the 7th Augmented Human International Conference 2016, 2016
As interfaces progress beyond wearables and into intrinsic human augmentation, the human body has... more As interfaces progress beyond wearables and into intrinsic human augmentation, the human body has become an increasingly important topic in the field of HCI. Wearables already act as a new layer of functionality located on the body that leads us to rethink the convergence between technology and fashion, not just in terms of the ability to wear, but also in how devices interact with us. Already, several options for wearable technology have emerged in the form of clothing and accessories. However, by applying sensors and other computing devices directly onto the body surface, wearables could also be designed as skin interfaces. In this paper, we review the wearability factors impacting wearables as clothes and accessories in order to discuss them in the context of skin interfaces. We classify these wearability factors in terms of body aspects (location, body movements and body characteristics) and device aspects (weight, attachment methods, accessibility, interaction, aesthetics, conductors, insulation, device care, connection, communication, battery life). We discuss these factors in the context of two different example skin interfaces: a rigid board embedded into special effects makeup and skin-mounted soft materials connected to devices. CCS Concepts CCS → Human-centered computing → Interaction design → Interaction design process and methods → User interface design
Uploads
Papers by Katia Cánepa Vega