Mechamagnets: Designing and Fabricating Haptic and Functional Physical Inputs with Embedded Magnets

Abstract

We present Mechamagnets, a technique for facilitating the design and fabrication of haptic and functional inputs for physical interfaces. This technique consists of a set of 3D printed spatial constraints which facilitate different physical movements, as well as unpowered haptic profiles created by embedding static magnets in 3D printed parts. We propose the Mechamagnets taxonomy to map the design space of this technique for designers and makers. Furthermore, we leverage the use of magnets by instrumenting these objects with linear Hall effect sensors to create functional digital inputs. We showcase Mechamagnets with a series of novel physical interfaces made with this technique. © 2019 Association for Computing Machinery.