This document summarizes the SweatAtoms project which materializes physical activity data as physical artifacts using 3D printing. It discusses how personal informatics tools have relied on virtual representations which lack rich tactile feedback, and how material representations can facilitate deeper engagement by being touched, explored, carried and possessed. The SweatAtoms project explores creating physical artifacts from activity data to embody self and past activities, taking the data on a physical-digital-physical journey. It develops five representations of activity data and conducts a study which finds the material artifacts facilitated engagement, reflection on sedentary lifestyle, and were more persistent and personal than digital representations alone.

1. SweatAtoms:
Materializing
Physical Activity
Rohit ashok khot, Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller, Larissa
Hjorth
Exertion Games Lab, RMIT University, Australia

2. Exertion Games Lab
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
http://exertiongameslab.org
About me and my lab

3. “Key to maintain and regain personal health”
- Weinberg and Gould (2006)
Physical activity

4. “Self monitoring and reflection”
- Li (2010)
Personal informatics

5. “Interactive capabilities, dynamic updates of data”
- Vande Moere (2008)
Virtual representation

6. “Lack of rich tactile feedback”
- Victor(2001)
Picture under the glass

7. “touched, explored, carried and even possessed.”
- Vande Moere (2008)
Material representation

8. “beyond virtual and efficiency goals”
- Hassenzahl (2010)
Meaning beyond the data

9. “Soon the 3D printers will be in everybody’s home.”
- Gershenfeld (2012)
Personal Fabrication

10. 1. Physical activity
3. Personal Fabrication
2. Personal Informatics
“To discover new ways of creating material artifacts
through technology that embody self and past activities.”
Physical – Digital - Physical

11. “3D printing of heartbeats”
SweatAtoms

12. “Physical activity data has no natural counterpart that
can be graphically reproduced.”
- Vande Moere (2008)
The problem of representation

13. Aesthetic and informative form
Five Representations

14. Heartbeats per minute
Representation 1: Graph

15. Dynamic floral pattern reflects the variations in heart rate
while length of petal denotes the intensity of heart beat.
Representation 2: Flower

16. Size of the frog captures the amount of physical activity
done in a day.
Representation 3: Frog

17. Each face of the die reflects the amount of time spent in
each of the six heart rate zones.
Representation 4: Dice

18. Bubbles around the ring denotes the number of active
hours and diameter of the bubbles defines the amount of
physical activity during that hour.
Representation 5: Ring

19. “Understand the impact of material artifacts on the
behavior and experience of everyday physical activity.”
Exploratory “in the wild” study

20. “great to see objects printing small big.. Like a recap of
my physical activity...”
Engaging with the process

21. “We love the frog...it is like... Burning your body fats and
putting them on the frog.”
Engaging with artifacts

22. “I would put them on the wall, to remind me that I did
well.”
Appreciating artifacts

23. “My trainer was so happy to see my progress, thanks for
letting me participate.”
Relating to physical activity

24. “it made me realize how much time I spent sitting...”
Reflecting on sedentary lifestyle

25. “[on a mobile phone] you look at your heart rate and
then forget about it, here [addressing to material artifact]
you cannot, it is more persistent and personal.”
Contrasting digital with material

26. Emergent themes
Autotopography
Rewards
Critical design

27. “Giving a physical form to the ephemeral experience of
physical activity can facilitate a deeper engagement
with the data.”
Physical – Digital - Physical

28. “Cocktail to match your physical activity”
TastyBeats: Fluidic representations