Foot Augmentation 101
Design your own Augmented Experiences

11 February 2024

About The Studio

About The Studio

This studio aims to collaboratively build foot augmentations, experiment with different materials and techniques, and create new designs for low-cost, wearable, and accessible devices that can be used by researchers, makers, designers, and artists. Considering the heightened focus on the human body with the rise of AR/VR/XR technologies, foot augmentation has great potential. To explore this potential, we invite researchers, designers and artists to share their applications, experiences, and ideas while designing foot augmentations. Participants will share knowledge, brainstorm ideas, and explore tools and materials for rapid prototyping. Finally, they will tinker and explore, discussing their design strategies to derive common approaches and best practices. Based on the hands-on session results, we will write a paper on design strategies for foot augmentation that will help facilitate more sustainable investigations and design of future foot interfaces.

Where

In-person Studio at TEI'24

When

Sunday, 11 February 2024

Learning Goals

  • 1. Explore existing foot augmentation approaches and learn about the opportunities and challenges

  • 2. Ideate, prototype and reflect to understand different augmentation methods like embodied and hermeneutic augmentation and their respective advantages and disadvantages

  • 3. Using iterative and modular design approaches, rapid prototyping, while understanding and empathizing with the challenges of software and hardware integration into a comfortable wearable foot interface

Studio Schedule

Introducing the Studio

On-boarding

Organizer and Participant Introductions

Prototypes and material exploration

Break

Ideation (Group Discussion #1)

Brainstorming and Exploring Augmentations

Presenting and Pitching ideas

Break

Hands On Session

Exploration, Prototyping and Implementation

Break

Synthesize (Group Discussion #2)

Promising Augmentations, Modalities, Tools

Concluding Results and Artifacts

Next steps and Closing

Materials

To be announced.

Organizers

Dennis Wittchen

Dennis
Wittchen

PhD Student
Dresden University of Applied Sciences

Nihar Sabnis

Nihar
Sabnis

PhD Student
Sensorimotor Interaction Group
MPI for Informatics

Troy Nachtigall

Troy
Nachtigall

Designer and Lecturer
Eindhoven University of Technology

Florian 'Floyd' Mueller

Florian
Floyd Mueller

Director
Exertion Games Lab
RMIT

Paul Strohmeier

Paul
Strohmeier

Group Leader
Sensorimotor Interaction Group
MPI for Informatics

Don Samitha Elvitigala

Don
Samitha Elvitigala

Lecturer
Exertion Games Lab at Monash

Call for Participation

The Foot Augmentation 101 studio, focuses on exploring and designing foot augmentations as well as building instrumented footwear. This studio is made for everyone interested in designing and studying foot augmentations in diverse fields. We welcome participants from all areas of Human-Computer Interaction HCI), as well as those with a passion for foot augmentations and interface design, regardless of their background or expertise. Our goal is to foster a diverse and inclusive environment where individuals from different disciplines can collaborate and share their knowledge and experiences. By participating in this studio, you will have the opportunity to:

a) Learn from previous work in the field and gain access to tools and materials for rapid prototyping.

b) Share your applications, experiences, and ideas related to designing foot augmentations.

c) Engage in hands-on sessions where you can tinker with your designs and discuss strategies for overcoming challenges.

d) Contribute to a collective understanding of design approaches and best practices for foot augmentation in HCI research and practice.

By the end of the studio, you will know about different approaches and modalities of foot augmentations. Furthermore, you will have experienced and designed their own augmentations using prototypes and materials provided by the organizers. We encourage you to bring your own prototypes and materials as well to demo them during hands-on sessions and to discuss the future of foot augmentations.

FAQ