Personal Photonics (2016–2019)

This three-year research project created new interaction techniques and user interfaces for photonics components, systems, and tools, to make them easier to use for makers, designers, artists, and other non-engineers, putting the photonics industry on center stage of the Open Innovation movement. Personal Photonics was funded by the German Ministry of Science and Education (BMBF) through its Open Photonics Initiative. The project was launched on June 1, 2016, and was completed on Dec 31, 2019. It was carried out by members of our lab at RWTH Aachen University, together with RWTH's InfoSphere learning lab for schools.

Tracks

• A. VibroVision and Haptic Toolkit: From Photonic Sensors to Wearable Haptic Output
• B. ARPen: 3D Sketching for Anyone using Smartphone Cameras and Augmented Reality
• C. InfoSphere: Open Embedded Development Workshops for Schools
• D. Dissemination: Free Flashcards, posters, and complete workshop concepts for 3D printing, lasercutting, and other Personal Photonics technologies.

Team (at the Media Computing Group)

Haptic Toolkit

Jan Thar: Electronics and software development
Sophy Stönner: Design and textiles

ARPen

Philipp Wacker: Software development and user studies
Krishna Subramanian: Community manager and software development
Oliver Nowak: Hardware prototyping

Learning Resources

Jan Thar, Sophy Stönner: Lasercutter Flashcards, Maker Cheat Sheet Posters
Prof. Jan Borchers, Anke Brocker, Marcel Lahaye: 3D Printing Flashcards

Project Management

Dr. Simon Völker
Prof. Jan Borchers

Publications

The final report (in German) describes the results of the whole project:  Personal-Photonics-Abschlussbericht.pdf

2021

• Philipp Wacker. Interaction Techniques for Mid-Air Pen Input in Handheld Augmented Reality. PhD Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, June 2021.
  

2020

• Philipp Wacker, Oliver Nowak, Simon Voelker and Jan Borchers. Evaluating Menu Techniques for Handheld AR with a Smartphone & Mid-Air Pen.  In Proceedings of 22nd International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, MobileHCI '20, pages 10, ACM, New York, NY, USA, October 2020.
  
• Farhadiba Mohammed. Scaling Objects: Implementation and Evaluation of Scaling Techniques for the ARPen System. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, September 2020.
  
• Martin Huppertz. Evaluating Guided Drawing Techniques in Handheld Augmented Reality. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, August 2020.
  
• René Schäfer. Redesigning ARPen: Evaluating Different Marker Placements for Mid-Air Pen Interaction. Master's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, June 2020.
  
• Philipp Wacker, Adrian Wagner, Simon Voelker and Jan Borchers. Heatmaps, Shadows, Bubbles, Rays: Comparing Mid-Air Pen Position Visualizations in Handheld AR.  In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI '20, pages 719:1–719:11, ACM, New York, NY, USA, April 2020.
  

2019

• Jan Benscheid. Making Sense of Lines: Interaction Sequences for 3D Modeling with Mid-Air Sketches. Master's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, October 2019.
  
• Donna Klamma. Rotating Objects: Implementation and Evaluation of Rotation Techniques for the ARPen System. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, August 2019.
  
• Timm Meiwes. Userfriendly Wearable Networking for Interactive Fashion. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, May 2019.
  
• Philipp Wacker, Oliver Nowak, Simon Voelker and Jan Borchers. ARPen: Mid-Air Object Manipulation Techniques for a Bimanual AR System with Pen & Smartphone.  In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI '19, pages 619:1–619:10, ACM, New York, NY, USA, May 2019.
  
• Oliver Nowak. ARMenus: An Evaluation of Menu Interfaces in Pen-based AR Applications on Smartphones. Master's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, February 2019.
  

2018

• Philipp Wacker, Adrian Wagner, Simon Voelker and Jan Borchers. Physical Guides: An Analysis of 3D Sketching Performance on Physical Objects in Augmented Reality.  In Proceedings of the 6th Symposium on Spatial User Interaction, SUI '18, pages 10, ACM, New York, NY, USA, October 2018.
  
• Dimitri Zimmermann. HaptiSculptVR - Virtual Reality Open Source 3D-Design with Haptic Feedback. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, September 2018.
  
• Aderick Krispradhana. HaptiGuard: Sideway Detection Armband for Hearing-Impaired People. Master's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, September 2018.
  
• Christian Schmidt. Comparing feedback techniques for underwater navigation. Master's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, September 2018.
  
• Felix Wehnert. Pen-based Drawing in Augmented Reality on Mobile Phones. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, April 2018.
  
• Philipp Wacker, Adrian Wagner, Simon Voelker and Jan Borchers. Physical Guides: An Analysis of 3D Sketching Performance on Physical Objects in Augmented Reality.  In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA '18, pages LBW626:1–LBW626:6, ACM, New York, NY, USA, April 2018.
  
• Adrian Wagner. Analyzing 3D Sketching Performance on Physical Objects in Augmented Reality. Master's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, April 2018.
  
• Florian Heller, Jan Thar, Dennis Lewandowski, Mirko Hartmann, Pierre Schoonbrood, Sophy Stoenner, Simon Voelker and Jan Borchers. CutCAD - An Open-source Tool to Design 3D Objects in 2D.  In DIS '18: Proceedings of the 2018 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, DIS '18, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2018.
  
• Jan Thar, Sophy Stoenner, Florian Heller and Jan Borchers. YAWN: Yet Another Wearable Toolkit.  In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers, ISWC '18, pages 232–233, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2018.
  
• Jan Thar, Sophy Stoenner and Jan Borchers. HaptiGames - Personally Fabricated for Visual Impaired.  In Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts, CHIPlay '18, pages 137–141, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2018.
  
• Jan Thar, Sophy Stoenner and Jan Borchers. HapticPong: Low Resolution Games for Visual Impaired.  In Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts, CHIPlay '18, pages 133–136, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2018.
  

2017

• Jan Thar, Florian Heller, Sophy Stoenner and Jan Borchers. HapticToolkit: Easily Integrate and Control Vibration Motor Arrays for Wearables.  In ISWC '17: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers, pages 249–253,September 2017.
  
• Nadine Bergner, Patrick Franken, Julia Kleeberger, Thiemo Leonhardt, Mario Lukas, Mario Pesch, Natalia Prost, Jan Thar and Lina Wassong. Das Calliope-Buch: Spannende Bastelprojekte mit dem Calliope-Mini-Board. dpunkt,  Book, July 2017.
  
• Moritz Messerschmidt. Badge Maker Developing an Easy-to-use System to Design and Build Illuminated Acrylic Name Tags for Children. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, April 2017.
  
• Max Jodl. Haptic sense - Evaluating the reliability and perception of vibration motor arrays on the human body. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, March 2017.
  
• Luisa Hoffmann. Eliciting User Gestures for the Interaction with a Pen-Based 3D Modeling Device. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, March 2017.
  

2016

• Philipp Wacker, Chat Wacharamanotham, Daniel Spelmezan, Jan Thar, David A. Sánchez, René Bohne and Jan Borchers. VibroVision: An On-Body Tactile Image Guide for the Blind.  In Extended Abstracts of the CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pages 3788–3791, ACM, New York, NY, USA, May 2016.
  

Internal project pages (registered users only)