Sarotis Project

The Interactive Architecture Lab at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL, London) has released its latest project named Sarotis, developing a series of soft robotic prosthesis combined with 3D vision systems to create a whole new way of sensing space through the body. Possible applications include assisting the blind or visually impaired with navigation, or in providing haptic feedback for virtual reality environments.

In 2016, a range of commercially available mobile devices arrived in the market carrying integrated 3D Cameras capable of depth perception and object recognition. If 3D vision technologies turn out to be as successful as their 2D predecessors, it is expected that 70% of the world’s population will be capable of scanning, storing and analysing their environments.

Lead by designers Ava Aghakouchak and Maria Paneta, the project at the Interactive Architecture Lab began with the question, how would 3d vision technologies change the way we see and interact with the world around us? Looking to answer this question beyond the era of mobile phones, the team examined more intimate wearable technology futures, where advanced vision systems and other sensory technologies would be connected directly to body through their “soft interfaces”.

First an experimental prosthesis was designed to study if a person’s awareness of space could be amplified using live 3D scanning technologies that control the inflation and deflation of soft robotic wearables. It is worth considering how fluidic hydrogel interfaces may dissolve the distinction between our own physiology and that of the softening machines that will extend our bodies.

Sarotis
Design: Ava Aghakouchak, Maria Paneta, Interactive Architecture Lab, Bartlett School of Architecture, London
Year: 2016