6.810 Engineering Interactive Technologies

6.810
Engineering Interactive Technologies (fall 2021)
(6.810 will not be offered in 2025 and 2026 (sabbatical))

Class content: Provides instruction in building cutting-edge interactive technologies, explains the underlying engineering concepts, and shows how those technologies evolved over time. Students use a studio format (i.e., extended periods of time) for constructing software and hardware prototypes. Topics include interactive technologies, such as multi-touch, augmented reality, haptics, wearables, and shape-changing interfaces. In a group project, students build their own interactive hardware/software prototypes and present them in a live demo at the end of term.

Labs & Homeworks (20%, 1.25% each)

PSets (40%)

Pset Series Multi-Touch Pad: Overview

Group Project (40%)

Schedule

Week	Date	Room	Lecture (1-1.30pm)	Lab (1.30-4pm)	Pset Multi-Touch Pad	Project	Notes
1	Sept 8 (wed)	34-501 Zoom	Overview Inkjet Printing Cap. Sensing Laser Cutting	Lab 1: Circuit Drawings for Conductive Inkjet Printing		Laser Cutting (released): Business Card	CHI Deadline (Sept. 9)
	Sept 10 (fr)	34-501 Zoom	Circuit and Signal Processing for Touch Sensing Motion Sensors	Lab 2: Sensing Touch from Inkjet Printed Circuit		Intro Slide (released): make one slide	Michael at CMU
2	Sept 15 (wed)	34-501 Zoom	Multi-Touch Student Intro Slides	Lab 3: Sending Touch Data to Processing	Pset1 (released): Generating Fabrication Files	Laser Cut Card + Intro Slide (due 1pm)
	Sept 17 (fr)	34-501 Zoom	Electroluminescent Displays Slider	Lab 4: Touch Slider Spray Teams (released): enter team
3	Sept 22 (wed)	34-501 Zoom	Electrochromic, Thermochromic, Photochromic Displays	catch up time, finish lab3/4 or work on pset1 Spray Teams (due): enter team	Pset1 (due): Generating Fabrication Files		Career Exploration Week
	Sept 24 (fr)	IDC (N52, 1st floor)	no lecture, we are spraying today	Lab 5: Spraying an Electroluminescent Display	Pset2 (released): Assembling Circuit		Career Exploration Week
4	Sept 29 (wed)	34-501 Zoom	EL Display Circuit & PWM	Lab 6: Controlling your EL Display			Junyi traveling
	Oct 1 (fr)	34-501 Zoom	- Overview Group Project - Project Idea Presentations from PhD students (Track #1)	Lab 7: Inkjet Printed Temperature Sensor	Pset2 (due): Assembling Circuit	Project Sign-up (released) (Track #1): sign up for project	Junyi traveling
5	Oct 6 (wed)	34-501 Zoom	Actuation & Communication: Shape Change, RFID, Wireless Power	Lab 8: Mug Assembly & Display Control Using Temperature	Pset3 (released): Sensing Multi-Touch Input	Project Sign-up (due) (Track #1) (4pm): sign up for project
	Oct 8 (fr)	34-501 Zoom	3D Printing for Interactive Objects	catch up time for lab7/8			Add Date
6	Oct 13 (wed)	34-501 Zoom	3D Printing Technologies	Lab 9: 3D Modeling the Lamp	Pset3 (due, October 14 (thursday)): Sensing Multi-Touch Input	Own Ideas due (1pm) (Track #2): upload your own project ideas	UIST 2021
	Oct 15 (fr)	34-501 Zoom	The Future of Fabrication	Lab 10: Slicing and 3D Printing the Lamp	Pset4 (released): Visualizing Multi-Touch Input		Rising Stars in EECS
7	Oct 20 (wed)	34-501 Zoom	Interactive Textiles	work on technical proposal and milestone plan		Technical Proposal & Milestone Plan (due): upload to google drive
	Oct 22 (fr)	34-501 Zoom	Vision-Based Multi-Touch Technology	Lab 11: Conductive Yarn for Creating the Lamp Shade	Pset4 (due): Visualizing Multi-Touch Input
8	Oct 27 (wed)	34-501 Zoom	Brain Computer Interfaces	Lab 12: Control Circuit for the Interactive Lamp	Pset5 (released): Touch Pressure & Gestures
	Oct 29 (fr)	34-501 Zoom	Haptics & Force Feedback	catch up time lab11/12		Milestone #1 (due 1pm): upload videos	Family Weekend
9	Nov 3 (wed)	34-501 Zoom	Maker Learning Tools	extra catch up time	Pset5 due: Touch Pressure & Gestures
	Nov 5 (fr)	34-501 Zoom	Health Sensing	Lab 13: Drawing Rotoscopes		Milestone #2 (due 1pm): upload videos
10	Nov 10 (wed)	34-501 Zoom	Physical Displays	Lab 14: Taking Photos & Photo Editing
	Nov 12 (fr)	34-501 Zoom	Shape Changing Interfaces	Lab 15: Video Recording & Editing		Milestone #3 (due 1pm): upload videos
11	Nov 17 (wed)	34-501 Zoom	no lecture	prepare midterm presentation			Drop Date (Nov 18)
	Nov 19 (fr)	34-501 Zoom	Midterm Presentation (7 min talk + 8 min Q&A)	we will spend most time in class listening to your midterm presentations		Midterm Presentation: prepare slides
12	Nov 24 (wed)	34-501 Zoom	no lecture	optional group project worktime			Thanksgiving pre-travel
	Nov 26 (fr)	34-501 Zoom	no class				Thanksgiving
13	Dec 1 (wed)	34-501 Zoom	Augmented Reality Photography Tools	group project worktime
	Dec 3 (fr)	34-501 Zoom	Robots and Assembly	group project worktime		Milestone #4 (due 1pm): upload videos	at most one assignment due between this date and the end of the last class
14	Dec 8 (wed)	34-501 Zoom	first 30 min: Set up your Live Demos	Final Presentations (5 min) + Live demos		Final presentation: prepare slides and live demo	last class

Course Info

Class Type: AUS, AUS2, II (Independent Inquiry)
Prerequisits: 6.08 and one of 6.031, 6.111, 6.115
When: Wednesdays and Fridays: 1 - 4pm
Where: 34-501
Enrollment: limited to 70 students

Grading

Lab Check-Offs and Home Works (20%)
Problem Sets (40%)
Open Ended Project (40%)
no exams or nano quizzes

Course Tools

slack |

Google drive |

Course Calendar

Teaching Team

Office Hours (at 34-501 and 38-501)

TAs may be bouncing back and forth between these two rooms, so please check both (they are within 1 minute walking distance).

Monday: 7-9pm Mihir (TA)
Tuesday: 7-9pm Shayna (LA)
Wednesday: 6-8pm Amadou + Mihir (TAs)
Thursday: 6-8pm Brian (LA)
Friday: 4-6pm Amadou (TA)
Saturday: -
Sunday: -

For grading + logistics questions, please email Prof. Mueller and she is happy to setup a meeting with you.
For engineering questions, go to a TA/LA OH.

Access to 34-501 (class room)

You can also access the room outside of office hours and use the equipment. The room is locked with an access code, so you can only go in at specific times. Below we list the times the room will be open. During those times, the room is used by another class for OH. You can still use the printers, but please do not use the tables and instead go to EDS to sit down at a table.

Mo: 7-10pm
Tue: 7-10pm
Wed: 1-4pm and 7-10pm
Thu: 7-10pm
Fr: 9-12am and 1-4pm
Sat: -
Sun: 10am - 10pm

Access to 38-501 (EDS):

For laser cutting, soldering etc. you need to access EDS. Below are the opening times.

Administrative

Questions during the course:

before coming to an OH, please post on your slack channel
go to a TA OH for building oriented questions
go to an instructor OH for logistical / grading questions
please do not send us emails

Late Policy:

labs: all have an automatic 1 week extension, e.g., if you did not finish lab1 during the class time (Sept. 8), you have until (Sept. 15 end of day) to complete it. This means you have two extra lab slots to complete the work, which will give you some time to catch up. Labs in a lab series build on each other so make sure you finish the previous lab before we do the next one to not fall behind. If the lab is still not completed after the one week extension, we apply the same point deduction as for psets (see below).
psets: 1-2 days late (10% off), 3-4 days late (20% off), 5-6 days late (30% off), 7-8 days late (40% off), 9-10 days late (50% off), 11-12 days late (60% off), 13-14 days late (70% off), 15-16 days late (80% off), 17-18 days late (90% off)
group project: no extensions, if one team member cannot make it the rest of the team needs to fill in, this applies to all milestones and the idea and final presentation.
if you have to self-quarantine, are otherwise sick, or travel for a job interview, please see below for exceptions.

Sick Policy:

ask your S3 dean to get in touch with us
post on your slack channel or email Prof. Mueller to explain the circumstances

Leave Policy for Job Interviews:

if you cannot attend class because of a job interview, please post in your slack channel or email Prof. Mueller and include the job interview invitation and airplane tickets or other proof of travel and we will try to accomondate you as much as possible

Collaboration Policy:

except for your group project, all labs and problem sets are individual efforts
you need to build all the hardware yourself, create all underlying manufacturing files yourself, and write all the code yourself
we use the same policy as 6.031 uses, you can read it in full detail here

Enrollment vs. Listener:

since this is a hands-on building class, we do not allow students to attend as Listeners
for fall 2021, we require students to be on-campus, there is no option to take this course remotely