Wax and paper molds

When trying to develop soft silicone robots, we realized that we needed new methods for casting silicone shapes. As we got deeper into trying different casting methods, we thought: why not just build fully wax molds? But the bigger we wanted to make them, the more difficult they were to 3D print. In comes the… Continue reading Wax and paper molds

Published
Categorized as Research

Detecting gestures on a fabric touch sensor

Developing furry robots that can detect and respond to emotional touch requires soft touch sensors and gesture detection algorithms. We developed a fabric touch sensor and a system that could detect different touches—like pats, scratches, and tickles. Related academic publications > Cang, X. L., Bucci, P., Strang, Allen, J., MacLean, K. E., and Liu, H.… Continue reading Detecting gestures on a fabric touch sensor

Small furry robots

The CuddleBits are handheld furry robots that express emotions through breathing movements. We wanted to make a lot of different sizes and shapes, so I created two design systems that could be easily modified (full instructions here). They were cheap, simple tools to study emotional touch. We wrapped them in our fabric touch sensor and… Continue reading Small furry robots

Reddit’s Am I the Asshole?

Reddit’s Am I the Asshole advice forum is a rich source of information on what people consider to be moral and good in our culture. I am using natural language processing (NLP) methods to support a deep read of social norms around device privacy and interpersonal trust.