導電性インクの印刷技術により、回路初心者でも電子回路を用いたインタラクティブアプリケーションの制作が容易になった。しかし、多数のLEDを適当に接続すると、導電性インクの抵抗によってLEDの輝度がばらつき、特に初心者には輝度の調整が非常に難しい。我々は、巡回セールスマン問題を用い、LEDを均一に光らせるパターンを生成する手法を開発した。この自動輝度調整機能により、ユーザは芸術的な作業に注力出来る。

Conductive inkjet printing are commonly used by inexperienced users such as graphical designers, students, and children to make a lot of interactive applications with electronic circuits. However, though these beginners wish to focus on creative and aesthetic aspect while making such circuits, current technology forces them to think about complicated electrical behaviors of the circuits, which is discouraging. One of those problems is to light up multiple LEDs given the non-negligible resistance of the conductive ink. We propose a Travelling Salesman Problem based algorithm to automatically generate an optimal path to connect all the LEDs to a power source and adjust resistance of the conductive traces printed by the conductive ink to assure that all the LEDs light up evenly.

Tung D. Ta, Fuminori Okuya, Yoshihiro Kawahara

Contact: tung@akg.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp