ExoSkin – On-body Fabrication – a paper by Madeline Gannon of MADLAB.CC and Tovi Grossman & George Fitzmaurice of Autodesk Research – has been accepted for publication in this year's Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) CHI conference. 

It will be presented at the San Jose Convention Center, Room 210 AE on Thursday, May 12th at 2:30.

Paper Abstract

There is a long tradition for crafting wearable objects directly on the body, such as garments, casts, and orthotics. However, these high-skill, analog practices have yet to be augmented by digital fabrication techniques. In this paper, we explore the use of hybrid fabrication workflows for on-body printing. We outline design considerations for creating on-body fabrication systems, and identify several human, machine, and material challenges unique to this endeavor. Based on our explorations, we present ExoSkin, a hybrid fabrication system for designing and printing digital artifacts directly on the body. ExoSkin utilizes a custom built fabrication machine designed specifically for on-body printing. We demonstrate the potential of on-body fabrication with a set of sample workflows, and share feedback from initial observation sessions.