An optocoupled poseable ball and socket joint for computationally enhanced construction kits

Abstract

We present a novel design for connecting pieces of a computationally enhanced construction kit, an optocoupled ball and socket joint. Unlike other existing connectors, our joint is poseable and allows both the topology and dynamic configuration of a kit assembly to be sensed. We provide a survey of existing computationally enhanced construction kit connectors and describe the technical details of our design.