Luke Franzke

• Zurich University of the Arts

Adequate and high-quality sleep is essential for mental and physical health. However, the sleep of around 2 billion people worldwide is negatively affected by snoring and over 900 million suffer from sleep apnea. The health and broader societal impact of these conditions are massive. Myofunctional therapy, which strengthens the muscles around the t...

Electroactive polymers (EAP) are a promising material for shape changing interfaces, soft robotics and other novel design explorations. However, the uptake of EAP prototyping in design, art and architecture has been slow due to limited commercial availability, challenging high voltage electronics and lack of simple fabrication techniques. This pape...

In this paper, we discuss the opportunities and challenges of creating responsive environments with Electroactive Polymers (EAPs). Our previous research on tools and methods for EAPs enabled us to develop two public installations: SOLO and Electric Animal Plant. Going beyond the demonstration of EAPs, these projects explore the aesthetics and inter...

This paper describes Hydroactive Polymers (HAPs), a novel way of combining shape-changing Electroactive Polymers (EAPs) and water for potential design and architectural explorations. We present a number of experiments together with the Fluid Morphologies installation, which demonstrated the materials through an interactive and sensory experience. W...

Materials play a vital role in tangible interaction design. However, the materials are often used passively, as elements to be actuated by ready-made electronic components rather than inherently active parts of an interactive system in their own right. In this paper, we challenge that approach through a series of material experiments involving elec...