The DecoChrom Workshop will be held in the context of the HCI course as lab exercise. Prof. Löchtefeld will introduce the students of the HCI course at the 20th and 22nd of November how flexible electrochromic displays can be produced.

Electrochromic displays present an alternative to existing display technologies such as OLED, LCD or ePaper displays. They are flexible, transparent, does not emit light and can be produced in non-rectangular shapes. However, whereas LCD and ePaper can produce nearly any graphic, electrochromic displays can only switch between a fixed number of graphics. Like ePaper it requires only very little energy to change. Applying current to the display is enough to drive a change making it easy to integrate into all kind of products. The displays can also function as touch sensors.

The workshop will allow participants to build their own electrochromic displays to provide a clear sense of purpose, as well as a practical and interesting takeaway. We will provide basic practical designs (such as On-Off switch, Arrows and Mute-Volume), but also allow participants to modify, extend or completely design by themselves. In this way, they can build something while learning about the basic principles of electrochromic displays.

About the Project:

The DecoChrom project elevates printed graphics products to the age of interactivity and empowers the creative industries with the tools and innovative advanced material sets to design and build aesthetically pleasing practical human interfaces to smart consumer goods and environments. The DecoChrom consortium develops printed electrochromics (EC) as the mass producible, print industry compatible, ultra-low-power interactive graphics solution for ambient intelligence. DecoChrom will scale-up the production of advanced composite materials into innovative ink EC colours, manufacturing process on different materials, wide dissemination and creation of EC toolkits to introduce electrochromics to designers, makers and the printing industry, and finally the co-creation of several creative industry lead end-user prototypes and pilots for architecture, interior design, lifestyle and sports.