Seung Ah Lee and her laboratory developed interactive biology systems in which people interact in real time with light-responsive Euglena cells through a microscope and a projector (S. A. Lee et al., CHI '15 2015; K. Lee et al., CHI EA '20 2020), and reviewed the field of micro-HBI (S. A. Lee and I. H. Riedel-Kruse, Front. Comput. Sci. 2022).
Human-biology interaction (HBI) studies how people can play, create and learn with living cells rather than simulations. Our systems couple a microscope to a projector: drawings on a touchscreen or hand gestures become patterns of light, and light-sensitive Euglena cells respond in real time. These platforms were used in museum exhibits, immersive installations, biotic games and artworks, and informed a review of the field of micro-HBI.
5 projects
Trap it! lets anyone interact with real, living microorganisms. A touchscreen shows a live microscope view of Euglena; whatever a visitor draws is projected back into the microscope as a pattern of light, and the light-sensitive cells respond in real time, so they can be herded, corralled or trapped inside a drawn ring.
MicroAquarium turns a microscope into a room-sized aquarium of living cells. A custom light-projection microscope holds phototactic Euglena; a gesture sensor tracks visitors' hands, and their mid-air movements are converted into light patterns projected onto the cells.
ReMember is an interactive installation for people who have lost a companion animal. It brings together two kinds of keepsake: the cremation stones that many owners keep, and recordings of their pet's heartbeat. The heartbeat is turned into sound and a pulsing ring of projected light whose color, brightness and size follow its rhythm.
EuglPollock, whose name blends Euglena with Jackson Pollock, is a platform where people and the alga Euglena gracilis make art together. Through a light-projection microscope, a participant's input becomes light that guides the swimming cells, and their movements are rendered as colorful, painterly trails on a large projection.
Beyond individual installations, we helped define micro-HBI: interactive systems that give people real, first-hand experiences with living cells, viruses and molecules rather than simulations of them.
11 publications
EuglPollock: Rethinking Interspecies Collaboration through Art Making
Lee, K., Jang, Y.K., Jung, J., Kim, D.H., Lee, H.J., & Lee, S.A.
Proceedings of the 30th ACM International Conference on Multimedia, pp. 1077–1084 (2022) doi:10.1145/3503161.3548151
Micro-HBI: Human-Biology Interaction With Living Cells, Viruses, and Molecules
Lee, S.A., & Riedel-Kruse, I.H.
Frontiers in Computer Science, 4, 849887 (2022) doi:10.3389/fcomp.2022.849887
ReMember: Using Biosignals to Recall Memories of Companion Animals
Yi, C., Bae, J., Baek, N., Jung, J., Hur, S., Lee, H.J., & Lee, S.A.
Proceedings of the ACM on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, 4(2), 1–7 (2021) doi:10.1145/3465614
Microbe-HCI: Introduction and Directions for Growth
Kim, R., Pataranutaporn, P., Forman, J., Lee, S.A., Riedel-Kruse, I.H., Alistar, M., Lazaro Vasquez, E.S., Vega, K., van Dierendonck, R., Gome, G., Zuckerman, O., Vujic, A., Kong, D.S., Maes, P., Ishii, H., Sra, M., & Poslad, S.
Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1–4 (2021) doi:10.1145/3411763.3450408
MicroAquarium: An Immersive and Interactive Installation with Living Microorganisms
Lee, K., Jung, J., & Lee, S.A.
Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1–4 (2020) doi:10.1145/3334480.3383164
Pac-Euglena: A Living Cellular Pac-Man Meets Virtual Ghosts
Lam, A.T., Griffin, J., Loeun, M.A., Cira, N.J., Lee, S.A., & Riedel-Kruse, I.H.
Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1–13 (2020) doi:10.1145/3313831.3376378
First-hand, immersive full-body experiences with living cells through interactive museum exhibits
Lam, A.T., Ma, J., Barr, C., Lee, S.A., White, A.K., Yu, K., & Riedel-Kruse, I.H.
Nature Biotechnology, 37(10), 1238–1241 (2019) doi:10.1038/s41587-019-0272-2
Device and programming abstractions for spatiotemporal control of active micro-particle swarms
Lam, A.T., Samuel-Gama, K.G., Griffin, J., Loeun, M., Gerber, L.C., Hossain, Z., Cira, N.J., Lee, S.A., & Riedel-Kruse, I.H.
Lab on a Chip, 17(8), 1442–1451 (2017) doi:10.1039/C7LC00131B Before IIL
LudusScope: accessible interactive smartphone microscopy for life-science education
Kim, H., Gerber, L.C., Chiu, D., Lee, S.A., Cira, N.J., Xia, S.Y., & Riedel-Kruse, I.H.
PLOS ONE, 11(10), e0162602 (2016) doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0162602 Before IIL
Trap it! A playful human-biology interaction for a museum installation
Lee, S.A., Bumbacher, E., Chung, A.M., Cira, N., Walker, B., Park, J.Y., Starr, B., Blikstein, P., & Riedel-Kruse, I.H.
Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), pp. 2593–2602 (2015) doi:10.1145/2702123.2702220 Before IIL
Tangible interactive microbiology for informal science education
Lee, S.A., Chung, A.M., Cira, N., & Riedel-Kruse, I.H.
Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI), pp. 273–280 (2015) doi:10.1145/2677199.2680561 Before IIL