BEXHI: A Mechanical Structure for Prototyping Bendable and EXpandable Handheld Interfaces

Title: BEXHI: A Mechanical Structure for Prototyping Bendable and EXpandable Handheld Interfaces

Teams: Université Grenoble Alpes, France, Laboratoire d’Informatique de Grenoble

Writers: Michael Ortega, Alix Goguey

Publication date: Sep 2019

Abstract

In this paper, we present BEXHI, a new mechanical structure for prototyping expandable and bendable handheld devices. Many research projects have pushed bendable surfaces from prototypes to commercially viable devices. In the meantime, expandable devices have become a topic of interest letting one foresee that such devices are on the horizon. With BEXHI, we provide a structure to explore the combined capabilities of these devices. The structure consists of multiple interweaved units allowing non-porous expandable surfaces to bend. Through an instanciation, we illustrate and discuss that the BEXHI structure allows for the exploration of the combination of both bend and expansion interaction spaces.