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Immersive Innovation Design (I²D) is a research group integrating researchers and students from different programs at the School of Design of the Royal College of Art.

I²D is interested in exploring all aspects of human-interaction and deployment of interactive systems where HCI and UX researchers, designers, (system) engineers, and many more come together to debate and shape the future of interaction/communication systems research, design, and practice.

A special focus will be laid on exploring the interface between digital and real world in the context of the STEAM agenda. During the current pandemic, new challenges emerge on the boundary between workshop and laptop.

PROJECTS

Please click on the corresponding project images to learn more and find links to the related publications.

VirtualStudio@SoD

  • Virtual Studio: Royal College of Art - IDE SpaceShip for SuperForm in Gather.town
    IDE1 Superform Show 2021 Close-up: The space ship contains rooms representing the different student projects. The room backgrounds were designed by the individual students. As the backend, Gather.town is used, a new online platform enabling dynamic group interactions.

Project Leader: Dr Bjorn Sommer

CELLmicrocosmos projects

  • Screenshots of the Chlamydomonas 3D Animation
    Chlamydomonas 3D - From Biological Cells to Biofuels (with Niklas Biere et al.)

Project Leader: Dr Bjorn Sommer

Collaboration Partners: Prof Dr Falk Schreiber, Prof Dr Ralf Hofestaedt

Grand Challenge Support 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2023/24

We are supporting the Grand Challenge at the School of Design with organizing VR Workshops in 2020/21 and 2021/22 and supporting the NEMO project with Map Visualization approaches. The Grand Challenge is probably the largest post-graduate student-driven design project in the world, bringing together students from different programs of the School of Design, such as Fashion, Product Design, Textiles, and of course Innovation Design Engineering.

The results from the Virtual Reality Workshop at the Grand Challenge 2021/22 was published here:

Virtual Reality Workshop at the Grand Challenge 2022–A Review with two Case Studies
B Sommer, S Jump, Y Dong, K Raoofi, RD Phillips, A Hall, P Anderson
Proceedings of Electronic Imaging 35/2023
[Conference Article]
2023

Project Leader: Dr Bjorn Sommer

Immersive Analytics

  • Photos and Screenshots of Binoculars VR: Exhibition Setup at Island of Mainau
    BinocularsVR: an exhibition at the island of Mainau (with Stefan Feyer et al.)

Project Leader: Dr Bjorn Sommer

Collaboration Partners: Prof Dr Falk Schreiber

StereoCompass App

  • Red-cyan Stereo Photo of the Lake of Constance/Island of Mainau
    The island of Mainau located in the lake of Konstanz. Photo in red/cyan anaglyph.

Project Leader: Dr Bjorn Sommer

Former/External Projects

External Project: Emotional Design + Bio materials

  • Photo Biophilic Plate Living Art IV from Ayn Sayuti
    Biophilic Design can be described as a need to be associated with nature within the built environment. Nature has healing properties that could bring positive effects on human emotional, behaviour, psychological, and physiological state.

Project Leader: Dr Ayn Sayuti

External Project: Exploring Cognitive Playfulness Through Zero Interaction

  • Photo: Silent Scene from Chang Hee Lee in the Dark with Light Rays
    Exploring Cognitive Playfulness Through Zero Interactions

Projects Leader: Dr Chang Hee Lee

Collaboration Partners: Dr Dan Lockton, Carnegie Mellon University

ACM SIGCHI Designing Interactive Systems (DIS’18)—Best Provocation Award (Top 2%)

Project Detail: [PDF]

External Project: Martian Delight: Exploring Qualitative Contact for Decoupled Communications

  • Martian Delight from Chang Hee Lee - IoT Setup
    ​Project Martian Delight is a communication system that enables an astronaut to qualitatively contact their loved ones on Earth through decoupled communications during deep space exploration missions.

Project Leader: Dr Chang Hee Lee

Collaboration Partners: Dr Tibor Balint, JPL NASA

71st International Astronautical Congress (IAC)

Project Detail: [PDF]

External Project: Synaesthetic-Translation Tool: Synaesthesia as an Interactive Material for Ideation

  • Chang Hee Lee: Design Synaesthesia Toolkit
    Synaesthetic-Translation Tool: Synaesthesia as an Interactive Material for Ideation

Project Leader: Dr Chang Hee Lee

Collaboration Partners: Dr Dan Lockton, Carnegie Mellon University

ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’19 EA)

Project Detail: [PDF]

PEOPLE

Team

Dr Bjorn Sommer

Group Lead, Research Tutor

Photo Bjorn Sommer

 Bjorn Sommer’s interdisciplinary background ranges from Computer Science over Visualization towards Design. Bjorn is Tutor and Year 1 Lead for Innovative Design Engineering (IDE).

Bjorn received his BSc in Media Informatics and Design in 2004 from Bielefeld University and Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (Gestaltung). There he also completed an MA Interdisciplinary Media Sciences in 2006 and initiated the CELLmicrocosmos project ‘Starting from an animated cell model’.

RCA Staff Page    Website

Jerry Lin

PhD Student

Photo Jerry/Zidong Lin

 Zidong (Jerry) Lin is a PhD candidate in the School of Design at the Royal College of Art. He has a BA (Hons) in Product Design (University of Lincoln) and an MFA in Design Informatics (University of Edinburgh). Under the supervision of Dr Bjorn Sommer, his current research focuses on developing a novel framework for designing emotional user experiences for Internet of Things (IoT) products.

As a researcher and an interaction designer, Zidong (Jerry) Lin’s design practices explore the human-nonhuman relationship by socio-technical narratives and experimental design methods.

RCA Student Page   Website

Dr Nurul ‘Ayn Ahmad Sayuti

Visiting Researcher, PostDoc

Photo Ayn Sayuti

 Ayn Sayuti is a Visiting Researcher (Postdoc) with a scholarship from the Ministry of Education, Malaysia. She graduated from the University of Canberra, Australia, with a PhD in Environmental Design in April 2017. She also has a Master’s degree in Design Technology from UiTM, Malaysia. Her research interests are biophilic design, bio-inspired design, furniture design, emotional design and innovative cultural products.
RCA Staff Page Website

Dr Chang Hee Lee

Visiting Researcher, Assistant Prof.

Photo Chang Hee Lee

 Chang Hee Lee is interested in finding new meanings for interaction and to explore novel methods of communication between human and machine.

Chang was founding member of this research group during his time at the RCA and is leading now the Affective Systems and Cognition Lab at KAIST.

His projects and research interest revolve around the subject of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), interaction design, embedded system, experience design, communication design​, synaesthesia, perception, play, tools, creativity, and so on

RCA Staff Page Website

Scientific Board Members

Prof Dr Ashley Hall

Postgraduate Research Lead: Design MPhil/PhD, Head of Programme: Healthcare & Design MRes

Photo Ashley Hall

 Ashley Hall’s international activity has included leading cross-cultural design innovation collaborations and he has developed and led commercial-academic partnerships in the transport sector.

RCA Staff Page

Alumni

Caroline Yan Zheng

PhD Student

Photo Caroline Yan Zheng

 Caroline Yan Zheng is a designer and researcher at the intersection of interaction design, soft robotics, and fashion practice. She is specialised in theories and practices on designing for the emotions applying to the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

She is a PhD candidate from RCA Information Experience Design. Her practice-led research explored a design framework to develop affect-enabling interactive artefacts, by bringing in fashion practice and material-centred interaction design approach.

RCA Staff Page Website

Emre Kayganaci

M.A./M.Sc. Student IDE

Photo Emre Kayganaci

 Emre Kayganaci is a Master’s student in Innovation Design Engineering, a joint program between Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. He studied Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.

He is interested in the intersection of design, technology and big problems. Bringing his design and innovation skills to solve problems across industries, such as renewable energy, toy design, manufacturing & recycling, and sports innovation.

LinkedIn Instagram

Jenny Hu

M.A./M.Sc. Student IDE

Photo Jenny Hu

 Jenny Hu is a Master’s student in Innovation Design Engineering which is a joint program between the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. She has a B.Des from Carnegie Mellon University where she studied Industrial design and HCI.

Her research interests are to explore novel, artifact-based human-computer interaction and define new opportunities at the intersection of design, craft, and machine.”

Website

Shefali Bohra

M.A./M.Sc. Student IDE

 

 Shefali Bohra is a Master’s student in Innovation Design Engineering, a joint program between Royal College of Art and Imperial College London.

Former Scientific Board Members

Prof Paul Anderson

Former Dean School of Design

Photo Paul Anderson

 Paul Anderson has an international profile in leading-edge research into fundamental human computer interface issues associated with 3D interfaces, haptics, 3D sound and gesture-based interaction.

 

 

 

NEWS

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DESIGN X BIOINFORMATICS

09.09.2022 London/Paris/Fukuoka, 1-5 pm (UK time) With this initiative, we are intending to bring together Bioinformaticians from various fields, and designers, design researchers, as well as medical and scientific illustrators to discuss future challenges in the context of Bioinformatics and Design. Being an area which often combines abstract and spatial data, and often taking standardisation …

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