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µMe

µMe

Honorable Mention Award at DIS’23

Authors: Fiona Bell, Michelle Ramsahoye, Joshua Coffie, Julia Tung, and Mirela Alistar

The human body is home to an unseen microbial ecosystem of mostly bacteria and fungi that live in harmony with us. We refer to the totality of these microbes as the microbiome. In this work, we explore the skin microbiome as an intimate material for designing living interfaces. We begin this by growing our microbiome such that it becomes visible to the human eye and then examining how different environmental parameters, such as temperature and growth media, can be controlled to influence the visual output of the microbiome. We further investigate how our interactions in a daily uncontrolled environment (e.g., exercising, hugging, typing) can impact the microbiome. We demonstrate several wearable applications that reveal and control the microbiome.