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JASMINE LU 🌱

is a Human Computer Interaction researcher and PhD student supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and UChicago Computer Science Liew Family Fellowship. She is a part of the Human Computer Integration Lab and is advised by Pedro Lopes. Through her work, she explores how we might build the future of interactive technologies to be more sustainable and center ecological thinking. Her research interests include wearables, sustainable interaction design, and living media interfaces. 

Jasmine’s most recent work, Integrating Living Organisms in Devices to Implement Care-based Interactions, will be published at User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) ‘22. In it, she explores how embedding a living organism as a functional component of a device, changes the user-device relationship by requiring the user to care for the device and organism. 

Her work has been covered by the The New Scientist, Forbes, Gizmodo, UChicago News, Nerdist, Communications of the ACM, and more.

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Read more in ‘About Me’

Publications

Integrating Living Organisms in Devices to Implement Care-based Interactions.

Jasmine Lu,  Pedro Lopes. In Proc. User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) ’22. 

[ paper ] [ video ] [ talk ]

We explore how embedding a living organism (in this case a slime mold, Physarum Polycephalum) as a functional component of a device, changes the user-device relationship. In our design, the user needs to care for the living organism (through providing food and water) in order for the device to work. When healthy, the organism participates in the device’s functionality by acting as a physical wire that enables power to the watch’s heart rate sensor. As such, caring for the device is intrinsic to its interaction design. Read more in Integrating Living Organisms in Devices to Implement Care-based Interactions.


Designing with Chemical Haptics.

Jasmine Lu. Design Research Society Bilbao ’22.

[ paper ]

Chemical receptors exist all throughout our body and are embedded throughout our skin. In this paper, I discuss my recent explorations in chemosensory interfaces for the skin and what possibilities it enables for the interaction design community. I outline my process of designing with these sensations, discuss how the chemical haptics approach induces uniquely complex sensations, and speculate on chemosensory design futures. Read more in Designing Chemical Haptics.

Chemical Haptics: Rendering Haptic Sensations via Topical Stimulants.

Jasmine Lu, Ziwei Liu, Jas Brooks, Pedro Lopes. In Proc. User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) ’21.

[ paper ] [ video ] [ talk ]

We propose a new class of haptic devices that provide haptic sensations by delivering liquid-stimulants to the user’s skin; we call this chemical haptics. Upon absorbing these stimulants, receptors in the user’s skin are chemically triggered, rendering distinct haptic sensations. We identified five chemicals that can render lasting haptic sensations: tingling (sanshool), numbing (lidocaine), stinging (cinnamaldehyde), warming (capsaicin), and cooling (menthol). To enable the application of our novel approach in a variety of settings (such as VR), we engineered a self-contained wearable that can be worn anywhere on the user’s skin (e.g., face, arms, legs).  Read more in Chemical Haptics.

Recent News

April 2023
Very excited to see the HCI community at CHI and honored to be supported by the Gary Marsden Travel Award and UChicago Grad Council Research Travel Grant.

March 2023
Had the loveliest time visiting my alma mater for an invited talk and workshop! So exciting to see the up and coming et al. lab!

January 2023
Was incredible to see student’s final projects in a wearables workshop we ran with Chicago Public Schools students. You can read more about it here.

Read more in ‘News’