Associate ProfessorAnusha Withanage Don

As wearable devices such as smartwatches and fitness trackers become increasingly ubiquitous, Dr Anusha Withana's research seeks to create a new generation of highly personalised wearable devices and technologies that will blend in with the human body. These devices will play an important role in supporting the demands of future digital societies in a wide range of social applications, including health care, aged care and education.

"The human body and its close vicinity is the most intimate and personal space for any individual, and everybody is unique in their physicality, their preferences and their needs. Wearable devices, which are designed to work in this space, therefore not only need to be non-intrusive and accommodating, but also should support great flexibility in personalisation. Unfortunately, commercially available devices currently do not support such a degree of freedom in customisation of design, applications or interactions. This is what my research aims to address.

"My research uses advances in material sciences, functional materials and personal fabrication, along with inspiration from nature (biomimicry), to create wearable interfaces that do not require user attention, use very little power, and are customisable according to user preferences in functionality as well as appearance.

"My long-term goal is to create the ultimate wearable interface that works as an extension of human body, so that the user will not need to be aware of it - charge it, turn it on and off, worry about privacy issues - but rather it will just blend in with the user's body, senses and expressions, becoming transparent to the user."