2020-2022
Guanhong Liu*, Tianyu Yu*, Zhihao Yao, Haiqing Xu, Yunyi Zhang, Xuhai Xu, Xiaomeng Xu, Mingyue Gao, Qirui Sun, Tingliang Zhang, and Haipeng Mi
New materials and technologies facilitate the design of thermochromic dynamic paintings. However, creating a thermochromic painting requires knowledge of electrical engineering and computer science, which is a barrier for artists and enthusiasts with non-technology backgrounds. We presented ViviPaint, a toolkit that assists artists and enthusiasts in creating thermochromic paintings easily and conveniently, consisting of a GUI animation choreography interface and an augmented picture frame with 24 Peltier-based Temperature-Changing Units (TCU). The results of our evaluation study indicate that our toolkit is easy to use and effectively assists users in creating thermochromic paintings. We envision this work could provide valuable insights about the toolkit design of thermochromic graphical art creation and provoke more thoughts and discussion about art creation through mixing traditional arts with technology.
Publications:
Contributions:
- Full participation in ViviPaint. Lead the design tool development, hardware evaluation and technical part of the publication.
ViviPaint
ViviPaint toolkit research
toolkit design and development
We designed ViviPaint consisting of a design tool and a set of hardware components. The design tool provides a GUI animation choreography interface, hardware assembly guidance, and assistance in assembly process. The hardware components comprise an augmented picture frame with a detachable structure and 24 temperature-changing units using Peltier elements.
ViviPaint software: the GUI design tool
ViviPaint hardware: Temperature Control Unit (TCU) and the augmented picture frame
user study of the toolkit
With the above software and hardware in ViviPaint, we now address the overall usage of the toolkit. Note that before using the toolkit, the users need to finish the painting and mount it on the inner wooden frame as preparation. After that, the user can use ViviPaint to complete the remaining creation process through a few steps as follows.
Assemble pipeline of ViviPaint
The results of our evaluation study (N = 8) indicate that our toolkit is easy to use and effectively assists users in creating thermochromic paintings.
Artworks from the user study
Artworks by ViviPaint
Candle
Artist: Yunyi Zhang
Exhibition: Graduation Exhibition of Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, Tsinghua University Art Museum, June 2021
JIULAN
Artist: Yunyi Zhang
Exhibition: Zijin Award (Nanjing) China College Student Design Exhibition, Naijing, November 2020
user study works
Artist: Participants in the user study, 2020
Further details: ViviPaint: Creating Dynamic Painting with a Thermochromic Toolkit (Multimodal Technologies and Interaction 2022)
于天宇 Tianyu Yu 