
The Transformative Human Interfaces for the Next Generation (THING) Lab, directed by Daniel Leithinger, employs shape-changing materials, novel sensors and unique design methods to make digital information tangible, paving the way for a new generation of interactivity that goes beyond sight and sound.
Lab Director

Associated Researchers









Alumni









Publications
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Ran Zhou, Harpreet Sareen, Yufei Zhang, and Daniel Leithinger. 2022. EmotiTactor: Exploring How Designers Approach Emotional Robotic Touch. In Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1330–1344. https://doi.org/10.1145/3532106.3533487 .pdf (June 13-17, 2022—Virtual Event, Australia) [Best Pictorial Honorable Mention].
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Ryo Suzuki, Eyal Ofek, Mike Sinclair, Daniel Leithinger, and Mar Gonzalez-Franco. 2021. Demonstrating HapticBots: Distributed Encountered-type Haptics for VR with Multiple Shape-changing Mobile Robots. In The Adjunct Publication of the 34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 131–133. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3474349.3480202 (Virtual–Oct.10-14, 2021).
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Purnendu, Sasha M Novack, Eric Acome, Christoph Keplinger, Mirela Alistar, Mark D Gross, Carson Bruns, and Daniel Leithinger. 2021. Electriflow: Soft Electrohydraulic Building Blocks for Prototyping Shape-changing Interfaces. Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2021. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1280–1290. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3461778.3462093 (June 28-July 2, 2021–Virtual Event).
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Purnendu, Eric Acome, Christoph Keplinger, Mark D. Gross, Carson Bruns, Daniel Leithinger. 2021. Soft Electrohydraulic Actuators for Origami Inspired Shape-Changing Interfaces. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts (CHI '21 Extended Abstracts). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 6 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411763.3451590. (Yokohama, Japan–May 8-13, 2021). pdf.
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Hooman Hedayati, Ryo Suzuki, Daniel Leithinger, Daniel J. Szafir. 2020. PufferBot: Actuated Expandable Structures for Aerial Robots. In Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2020). DOI: 10.1109/IROS45743.2020.9341088. (Las Vegas, Nevada–Oct. 25-29, 2020) pdf.
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Ryo Suzuki, Rubaiat Habib Kazi, Li-Yi Wei, Stephen DiVerdi, Wilmot Li, and Daniel Leithinger. 2020. RealitySketch: Embedding Responsive Graphics and Visualizations in AR through Dynamic Sketching. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '20). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 16 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3379337.3415892 (Minneapolis, Minnesota–Oct. 20-23, 2020) [Honorable Mention Paper Award].
- Ryo Suzuki, Hooman Hedayati, Clement Zheng, James Bohn, Daniel Szafir, Ellen Yi-Luen Do, Mark D Gross, and Daniel Leithinger. 2020. RoomShift: Room-scale Dynamic Haptics for VR with Furniture-moving Swarm Robots. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '20). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper 396, 11 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376523 (Honolulu, Hawaii – April 25-30, 2020).
- Ryo Suzuki, Ryosuke Nakayama, Dan Liu, Yasuaki Kakehi, Mark D. Gross, and Daniel Leithinger. 2020. LiftTiles: Constructive Building Blocks for Prototyping Room-scale Shape-changing Interfaces. In Proceedings of the 14th ACM International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI '20). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Pages 143–151. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3374920.3374941 (Sydney, Australia -- Feb. 9-12, 2020).
- Ryo Suzuki, Ryosuke Nakayama, Dan Liu, Yasuaki Kakehi, Mark D. Gross, and Daniel Leithinger. 2019. LiftTiles: Modular and Reconfigurable Room-scale Shape Displays through Retractable Inflatable Actuators. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 32nd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '19). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1-3.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3332167.3357105 (New Orleans, Louisiana – Oct. 20-23, 2019). - Ryo Suzuki, Clement Zheng, Yasuaki Kakehi, Tom Yeh, Ellen Yi-Luen Do, Mark D. Gross, Daniel Leithinger. 2019. ShapeBots: Shape-changing Swarm Robots. In Proceedings of The 32nd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST'19). https://doi.org/10.1145/3332165.3347911 To appear (New Orleans, Louisiana — Oct. 20-23, 2019).
- Ryosuke Nakayama, Ryo Suzuki, Satoshi Nakamaru, Ryuma Niiyama, Yoshihiro Kawahara, and Yasuaki Kakehi. 2019. MorphIO: Entirely Soft Sensing and Actuation Modules for Programming Shape Changes through Tangible Interaction. In Proceedings of the 2019 on Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '19). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 975-986. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3322276.3322337. Best Paper Award.
- Peter Gyory, Clement Zheng, Daniel Leithinger, and Ellen Yi-Luen Do. 2019. HOT SWAP: Probing Embodied Game Interfaces With Reconfigurable Controllers. In Companion Publication of the 2019 on Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2019 Companion (DIS '19 Companion). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 183-187. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3301019.3323901. (San Diego, CA, USA — June 23 - 28, 2019).
- Clement Zheng, Jeeeun Kim, Daniel Leithinger, Mark D. Gross, and Ellen Yi-Luen Do. 2019. Mechamagnets: Designing and Fabricating Haptic and Functional Physical Inputs with Embedded Magnets. In Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '19). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 325-334. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3294109.3295622
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Ryo Suzuki, Junichi Yamaoka, Daniel Leithinger, Tom Yeh, Mark D. Gross, Yoshihiro Kawahara, Yasuaki Kakehi. 2018. Dynablock: Dynamic 3D Printing for Instant and Reconstructable Shape Formation. In Proceedings of The 31st Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST'18). DOI: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3242659 (Berlin, Germany — Oct. 14-17, 2018).
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Udayan Umapathi, Patrick Shin, Ken Nakagaki, Daniel Leithinger, and Hiroshi Ishii. 2018. Programmable Droplets for Interaction. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '18). ACM, New York, NY, USA. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3170427.3186607 (Montreal QC, Canada — April 21 - 26, 2018).