Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/P004342/1
Title:	Automorph: Bringing Rigor to the Creation of Morphing Interactive Devices
Principal Investigator:	Roudaut, Dr A
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Computer Science
Organisation:	University of Bristol
Scheme:	First Grant - Revised 2009
Starts:	01 November 2016	Ends:	18 March 2019	Value (£):	89,340
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Human-Computer Interactions
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Information Technologies
Related Grants:
Panel History:	Panel Date Panel Name Outcome 10 Jun 2016 EPSRC ICT Prioritisation Panel - Jun 2016 Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
Today there are almost as many mobile phones and tablets as there are people on the earth. This is seven times more than the number of motor vehicles in the world. It is thus surprising that the industry of interactive device is still as such an elementary state, e.g. relying on manufacturer's gut feeling to choose the shape of devices - a static and planar rectangle resembling a brick. In comparison the automobile industry has made considerable advances since the first Benz Motor Car in 1879. It now has diligent models (fluid mechanics), systematic tools (simulation software, wind tunnels) and methods (composite lay-up) that brought rigor and innovation to the creation process, allowing the production of intelligent structures and morphing materials used in many systems (e.g. cars, wind turbines). We believe that time has come to bring similar rigor to the industry of interactive device in order to create phones, tablets or other devices that are not only adapted to human interaction but also exploit the advances made in some of the fundamental sciences used to create automotive (e.g. Fig.1 a reconfigurable touchscreen using Shape Memory Alloys). Such revolution could fundamentally transfigure the market of interactive devices, not only changing their shapes to be fully adapted to the human morphology, but also enabling morphing abilities: when launching a game, a phone would curl its edges to facilitate grasping with two hands; when writing an email, a tablet surface would transform into a keyboard to improve touch-typing; when teaching about the formation of continents, children would physically interact with and mould actuated surfaces in order to experience the impact of geological forces. These examples only scratch the surface in terms of ways in which we can interact with morphing interactive devices. This can radically change the way we interact with computers, making them universally versatile by endowing them with the ability to adapt themselves to the users in a natural way. However, implementation of morphing interactive devices is far off despite tremendous breakthroughs in advanced materials. The problem is that tools and methods are confined to the automotive industry, focused on large-scale systems rather than small scale ones, and whose outcomes are out-of-reach of researchers with no expertise in material engineering. More importantly the entire design process requires a profound rethinking, as the underlying models do not apply anymore (e.g. fluid mechanics). Instead we need models of human interactions that are substantially more complex, encompassing not only the physical aspects of interaction (motor) but also human cognition and perception. Such models will not only help creating tools and methods for the interactive devices industry, but also contribute an unprecedented understanding of how shapes provide affordances (quality of an object to tell us how it wants to be used and how it helps us to use it) that can unleash the humans' interactive potential.
Key Findings
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Organisation Website:	http://www.bris.ac.uk