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Reconfigurable mid-air displays

This thesis addressed the diﬃculties involved in reconﬁguring permeable mid-air displays (e.g., fog screens) through the experimental investigations of three interactive prototypes: MistForm, SoundBender, and SonicSpray. Each of the prototypes includes their speciﬁc reconﬁgurability techniques. The discussion begins in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 described a straightforward technique used by MistForm to coarsely and mechanically reconﬁgure the permeable mid-air display. MistForm can adaptively deform its display surface to a speciﬁc condition through linear mist emitters controlled by ﬁve actuators. It is capable of turning problems into solutions, for example, a concave display can be used as a shared screen while convex shape as a personal screen. However, the investigation found the MistForm to be large and noisy. These challenges have led to a study investigation of SoundBender in Chapter 3. Chapter 3 described an investigation of a hybrid technique that reconﬁgured non-solid diﬀusers. The method can precisely manipulate any given complex sound ﬁeld, encoded by a metamaterial (MM) mounted on phased array transducer (PAT). The force from the sound aﬀected the surrounding particles. The technique can be used to reconﬁgure matter such as paper, mist, and ﬂame in air space. However, the chapter did not focus on coordinating its use speciﬁcally for permeable mid-air displays. Therefore, this thesis carried out an investigation of SonicSpray in Chapter 4. It describes a technique to reconﬁgure mid-air display of permeable matter (i.e., aerosols) precisely by using a small farm factor PAT. This thesis ends with a conclusion in Chapter 5. The next generation of mid-air displays needs to be in small form factor, multipurpose and controllable, which have been introduced and demonstrated in this thesis. The research in this thesis can facilitate the future design of displays. However, this thesis highlights the response rate of the permeable particles, the primary concern yet to be solved. The airﬂow speed of the particles was found to be decreased proportionally to the number of transducers used. In the future, for better control the display, researchers should improve the response rate of the particles, for example, using sources with higher sound power.