Materializing Light: Real-time, Handheld Fabrication of Programmable Structural Color

Structural color is nature’s programmable color palette. While pigments and dyes absorb light to produce color, structural color uses nanoscale, light-reflecting structures to appear iridescently colored. We present MorphoChrome, an optical device for real-time, handheld, programmable structural color fabrication. Analogous to painting with light, MorphoChrome creates multicolor, structurally colored designs by exposing a commercially available holographic photopolymer film to user-controlled wavelengths. Within the device, red, green, and blue laser diodes go through an optical prism, combining light and producing mixed color outputs on the film. Additionally, we introduce a resin-based process to adhere and integrate the structurally-colored film with flexible and rigid objects and diverse making processes. In this thesis, we focus on the device optical design and fabrication, color-mixing, color output UI controller, device aperture tips, and holographic photo-polymer film adherence process. We evaluate the available color space and color resolution, and demonstrate creative fabrication applications.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Myers, Paris G.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mueller, Stefanie

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/164134

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/164134