TY - GEN
T1 - BioTube
T2 - 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2025
AU - Peng, Yuecheng
AU - Miyatake, Mako
AU - Peng, Tyler L.
AU - Lu, Qiuyu
AU - Yang, Yue
AU - Yao, Lining
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
PY - 2025/4/26
Y1 - 2025/4/26
N2 - We present BioTube, a sustainable and highly accessible DIY fabrication approach for creating hollow tubular alginate, and demonstrate its potential for making biodegradable transient devices. This technique involves extruding alginate into a calcium solution, initiating a progressive crosslinking process that starts from the outer shell and progresses inward. This controlled process removes the uncrosslinked core before complete gelation, yielding hollow alginate fibers. To further enhance the capabilities of BioTube, we explored three further crosslinking strategies to customize the fiber shape, local cross-sectional geometry, and stiffness. The versatility of this method is demonstrated through three key functional primitives: shape, morphing, and sensing. These capabilities are further illustrated through five application examples, including transient wearables, edible shape-changing interfaces, experimental gastronomy, underwater grippers, and sacrificial casting molds. We believe that BioTube will expand the design possibilities for alginate, enabling the creation of innovative biodegradable devices.
AB - We present BioTube, a sustainable and highly accessible DIY fabrication approach for creating hollow tubular alginate, and demonstrate its potential for making biodegradable transient devices. This technique involves extruding alginate into a calcium solution, initiating a progressive crosslinking process that starts from the outer shell and progresses inward. This controlled process removes the uncrosslinked core before complete gelation, yielding hollow alginate fibers. To further enhance the capabilities of BioTube, we explored three further crosslinking strategies to customize the fiber shape, local cross-sectional geometry, and stiffness. The versatility of this method is demonstrated through three key functional primitives: shape, morphing, and sensing. These capabilities are further illustrated through five application examples, including transient wearables, edible shape-changing interfaces, experimental gastronomy, underwater grippers, and sacrificial casting molds. We believe that BioTube will expand the design possibilities for alginate, enabling the creation of innovative biodegradable devices.
KW - bio-design
KW - Bio-HCI
KW - Biomaterials
KW - hydrogels
KW - sustainability
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105005744693
U2 - 10.1145/3706598.3714165
DO - 10.1145/3706598.3714165
M3 - Conference article published in proceeding or book
AN - SCOPUS:105005744693
T3 - Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
BT - CHI 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PB - Association for Computing Machinery
Y2 - 26 April 2025 through 1 May 2025
ER -