Pressure Proof: A DIY Guide to Creating a Pneumatic Testing System for Validating Inflatable Product Designs

The ability to change shape is an interesting opportunity in human-computer interaction, e.g. for tactile interfaces, shape-changing interactions and data physicalization. However, how do we implement and test all those amazing ideas? Inflatables have been a popular choice for these applications in recent years, offering the capability for rapid prototyping and textile integration. Nevertheless, affordable, easy-to-procure, and reliable setups for pneumatic testing are scarce. This paper presents our simplified principle and a build guide for a simple setup that can be made from maker components and has all the important features for prototyping and proof of concept work.