Tangible Media Group

In nature, hair has numerous functions for providing warmth, adhesion, locomotion, sensing and a sense of touch. It also has well known aesthetic qualities. This work presents a computational method for the 3D printing of hair structures. It allows us to design and generate hair geometry at 50 micrometer resolution and assign various functionalities to the hair. The ability to fabricate customized hair structures enables us to create super fine surface texture, mechanical adhesion, new passive actuators and touch sensors on a 3D printed artifact. We also present several applications to show how the 3D-printed hair can be used for designing everyday interactive objects.

For technical detail, please reference our paper below.