Hello World is an interactive puzzle poster. Each letter has its own function and it is up to the user to explore the circuit to figure out the interaction.

Some letters are simple switches:

Others behave like miniature pop-up cards:

This poster uses techniques covered during the paper-based electronics workshops at MIT and RISD. This poster is an example to adding craft to simple electronics and aims to get viewers comfortable with physically exploring live circuitry.

Flickr set: Hello World Poster

2012. Microcontrollers, LEDs, decorative papers

Pu Gong Ying Tu is an interactive painting of a dandelion field. When you blow on the white puffs, the seeds disperse and generate new flowers. These flowers begin as yellow dandelions, but after a few moments bloom into responsive white seed puffs.

Beneath the painting is the circuitry– made up of microcontrollers, LEDs and microphones. At each dandelion, a microphone listens for wind. Yellow and white LED lights, which can be coded to brighten or dim, act as dynamic programmable paint strokes which make up the petals and seeds.

The piece is part of a series called Programmable Paintings, which blend traditional elements of painting–such as color, texture, composition–with the intelligence and interactivity of electronics and computation.

This work was made in collaboration with John Clifford, with guidance from Brian Chan.

This painting is inspired by Jessie Thompson and Zachory Berta’s:
When is a Flower Not a Weed?

Flickr set: Pu Gong Ying Tu (Dandelion Painting)
Flickr set: Dandelion Painting- In Progress

2012. Microcontrollers, microphones, LEDs, ink, rice paper, fleece, magnets

Synthesizer circuit board designed to look like a cassette tape. To be released at SXSW 2012 in Austin, TX.

A collaboration with openmusiclabs.

Project site: mixtape alpha

Flickr set: Mixtape Alpha

2012 to present.

This website is a resource for making expressive technologies through paper-based electronics . It includes links to material suppliers, tutorials, workshops and example projects.

website: http://web.media.mit.edu/~jieqi

2012 to present.

Book of functioning circuit cards showing examples of various useful circuits.

Project website: http://web.media.mit.edu/~jieqi/?cat=13

Flickr set: preprogrammed microcontroller cards

2012 to present. Paper, LEDs, copper tape, scotch tape, Attiny45, various sensors and outputs

Templates for making paper-based electronic cards using LEDs and copper tape. Includes templates for paper push buttons, sliders, page-open sensing and page-close sensing mechanisms.

Project page: http://web.media.mit.edu/~jieqi/?cat=7

Flickr set: Paper electronics template cards

2012 to present. Paper, LEDs, copper tape, scotch tape

An electronic tambourine that is completely powered by the playing of the instrument . Yellow LED lights on the jingles light up when the corresponding piezo is rattled. The harder the tambourine rattles, the greater the voltage generated by the piezoelectric elements and thus the brighter the light. If the tambourine is rattled with enough force, blue and red LED lights on the band also light up. Thus, the player can both hear and see the music generated by this instrument.

This project is based on the energy harvesting shoe project from the Responsive Environments Group.

Flickr set: Piezoelectric tambourine

Project presentation: piezo tambourine [pdf]

2011. Piezoelectric elements, LEDs, lasercut-wood, resin

An interactive paper installation that comes to life in the presence of a viewer . Normally a static wall hanging, as the viewer approaches the vines begin to curl and slither up and down.

Each vine is made up of eight units, and each unit actuated to curl using muscle wire sewn directly to the paper. While a single unit can only curl slightly, cascading the units sums the individual movements to create a lifelike dance. The muscle wires’ movements are silent so that the interaction is accompanied only by the sound of gently crackling and creaking paper.

Flickr set: Animated vines

2011. Paper, flexinol wire, Lilypad Arduino, sonic distance sensor, 12V wall power supply

Make dragon kite. Add LEDs. Enjoy. :).

Made in collaboration with Jonathan Samuelson.

Full tutorial: http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=1414

Flickr set: Kite flying and falling

2011. Dragon kites, LEDs, coin cell batteries

Origami cranes come to life and flap when you ring the cup.

Testing out the cranes:

Flickr set: Still life with cranes

2011. paper-based electronics, Lilypad Arduino, flexinol wire, 5V wall supply

I/O Stickers is an electronics construction kit made up of adhesive sensors and actuators . It is designed to empower users to create electronics while also leveraging existing skills in craft, resulting in works that are creatively expressive as well as technically sophisticated.

The basic idea is that users can place special electronic stickers onto contact points in pre-wired and preprogrammed pages, and the pages will transmit the state of the input (sensor) sticker to a corresponding output (actuator) sticker. Users can design the interaction by choosing the sensor and actuator stickers, and then personalize the interface by decorating over the flat, electronic stickers with their choice of craft material

Flickr set: I/O stickers

Project webpage: http://www.nataliefreed.com/telescrapbook/

Press:
Fashioning Tech
MAKE

2011. paper-based electronics, light sensor, tilt sensor, pressure sensor, vibration motor, piezo speaker, LED light

The Telescrapbooks are remote-communicating electronic scrapbook. They are constructed to look and feel as much as possible like traditional books, and to be completely customizable and craft-able. The idea is for people to be able to design a personalized remote communication tool for themselves and someone they care about.

This project was made in collaboration with Natalie Freed and Adam Setapen of the Personal Robots Group.

Flickr set: Telescrapbook

Project webpage: http://www.nataliefreed.com/telescrapbook

Project paper: IDC 2012 [pdf]

Press:
Fashioning Tech
MAKE

2011. XBee radios, Lilypad Arduinos, paper-based electronics.

An interactive electronic poster inspired by the quote “many hands make light work.” As you touch the subtle hand prints on the poster, the city comes to light through light and motion.

This project was made in collaboration with Bénédicte Enou, Laura Mussard, and Bo Pang for the Sérigraphie Électronique workshop at ENSAD.

Flickr page: Building buildings

Project webpage: http://hlt.media.mit.edu/workshops/ENSAD_2011/?page_id=9

2011. Screen printing and hand drawings on paper, flexinol wire, Lilypad Arduino, LEDs, 9V power supply

A 3D printed functioning Rubik’s cube with GEB extruded through the faces so that when the cube is solved, you can see the letter G, E and B. Inspired by Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter. The cube is 3D printed in one piece.

Project page: http://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/MIT/863.10/people/jie.qi/jieweek7b.html.

Thingiverse page: GEB Rubik’s cube

2010. Designed in OpenSCAD and 3D printed

A pair of origami papers in which the red paper senses how it is being folded and the white paper follows.

When the white paper is flipped over, blintz folding allows the paper to get up, wobble around, and even flip itself over. The microcontroller and circuitry is on the body of the red paper and the white paper is actuated by shape memory alloy.

Project documentation: http://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/MIT/863.10/people/jie.qi/jieweek14.html

Flickr set: I/O paper

Press:
The Creators Project
MAKE

2010 – 2011. Cardstock, Attiny84 with MOSFETs, 0.006″ HT flexinol wire, copper tape, 5V wall supply

This crane silently flaps on its own using shape memory wire in the wings.

Project documentation: http://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/MIT/863.10/people/jie.qi/jieweek10.html

Flickr set: Electronic origami

Press: The Creators Project

2010. Paper, 0.006″ HT flexinol wire, copper tape, LED, 3.7V lithium ion battery

The pair of doves communicate wirelessly through radio. When one bird flaps, its partner lights up. As one is flapped, a switch in the wings close, causing its partner to light up. The origami doves turn on when folded from the flat square papers.

Project page: http://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/MIT/863.10/people/jie.qi/jieweek12.html.

Flickr set: Electronic origami

Press: The Creators Project

2010. Xbee radios, paper, conductive fabric, copper tape, LEDs

Weekly projects made during MAS 863.10: How to Make (Almost) Anything.

Class website: http://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/MIT/863.10/people/jie.qi/

Flickr set: How to make (almost) anything

2010.

A life-sized pop-up book that you can open up and step into , made using only cardboard, an X-acto knife, tape and glue. Inside is a kinetic mural of pleated paper flowers made using soft circuit techniques and materials.

Inspired by origami, the folding mechanism in the walls and roof uses a series of angled pleats, which are mirrored on a smaller scale throughout the book. As you tug on a string of beads leading from one flower, the rest come to life moving like puppets using a series of strings attached to motors. The mural itself is drawn using conductive fabric and copper tape, which serve both as expressive and functioning traces within the circuit. Electronic components are also openly displayed and emphasized to explain the electronic workings behind the mural.

Flickr set: Novel architecture

Press: Fashioning Tech

2010. Handcut cardboard, Lilypad Arduino, servo motors, paper-based electronics.

Above photograph by Brian Mayton.

Two wirelessly linked robotic plush bears as haptic communication devices. The two bears’ arms are equipped with motors and sensors that can tell the current position as well as actuate rotational movement and Bluetooth microcontrollers that allow the bears to communicate wirelessly. Their arms are synced so that when one bear moves its arms, the other bear moves its arms in the same way. It employs a system of bilateral force-feedback to create the illusion that the parent and child are interacting with the same plush bear. Despite the fact that the child and loved ones may be confined to different rooms or even different countries, they can still interact physically as if they were right next to each other.

This project was made in collaboration with Guilherme V Araujo, Khali Glenn and Monica Joshi for mechanical engineering’s Capstone Design course.

Project video: http://tv.seas.columbia.edu/videos/664/60/89

Project report: HTH final report [pdf]

2010. Custom designed and fabricated robotic mechanism, stepper motors, Bluesmirf bluetooth modules, Arduinos, teddy bear skin from Build-a-bear.