Perceived Affordances in Programmable Matter

Abstract

The advantages of additive manufacturing technology combined with recent research in material sciences has led to the development of programmable matter- objects that can change their form or function or both in a pre-decided manner based on the user input or the environmental stimuli. Programmable matter is allowing us to develop a new paradigm of interactive and smart products. While these products are functional, they may or may not incorporate cues in their form that conveys information about how to interact with the product – a property termed as perceived affordance. Research on perceived affordances of programmable matter is lacking. We wish to bridge that gap by understanding what perceived affordance means in the context of programmable matter, and how to design products to create better perceived affordances.