THE
MICRO_INVASION

Making invisible microplastic exposure
visible on the body and across the surrounding space.

Role
Interaction & AR Developer
Year
2024
Team
Chuyue Yu · Yike Hu · Lisi Xie

/01 EXPERIENCE

TOUCH.
EAT.
BREATHE.
REVEAL.

Everyday actions become visible exposure points.

Skin Contact

Using hand sanitizer makes invisible contact visible across the hand.

Touch → Eat → Breathe → Reveal

The first three interactions can happen in any order. The final reveal activates only after all three exposure states are complete.

/02 INTERACTION

THE BODY
BECOMES THE INTERFACE

Three everyday actions make invisible exposure visible.

01 / Skin · Touch

Skin Contact

Sanitizer makes skin exposure visible across the hand.

02 / Food · Eat

Food Intake

Eating an apple reveals hidden intake on the face.

03 / Respiration · Breathe

Respiration

A wiping gesture turns synthetic fibers into visible particles.

/03 DEVELOPMENT

FROM TEMPLATE
TO CUSTOM SYSTEM

I adapted existing Lens Studio templates to separate body effects and stabilize physical interactions.

03.1 / Separating the Body

One Template,
Three Regions

I traced the template to control hand, face and clothing effects independently.

03.2 / Calibration

Proximity Trigger
Calibration

Three nearby triggers required a distance threshold that was responsive without causing false activations.

Debug Setup

QR marker anchors the virtual triggers; live hand distance helps tune the activation range.

03.3 / Experience State

Three Triggers,
One Payoff

Skin

Food

Fabric

Final Reveal

Any order. The reveal starts only when all three are complete.

/04   FINAL REVEAL

FROM BODY
TO SPACE

Once all three exposure paths are complete, contamination expands from the body into the mapped environment.

WELCOME TO THE
WORLD OF MICROPLASTICS.

World Mesh / Performance

Particle density was tuned to keep the room-scale effect responsive while preserving the visual impact.

/05 ROLE

ROLE &
BUILD

My work connected concept direction, interaction design, AR development and technical prototyping.

Concept Direction
Microplastic theme and interaction framing
Interaction Design
Three exposure interactions and final reveal logic
AR Development
Tracking, segmentation, triggers, particles and world mesh
Prototyping
Template adaptation, debugging tools and trigger calibration

Team / Ownership

Chuyue Yu
Interaction Designer
Yike Hu
Visual Designer & Video Editor
Lisi Xie
Interaction & AR Developer
Microplastic Direction
Lisi Xie
Dining-Table Concept
Developed collaboratively
Interaction Flow
Lisi Xie
Primary Technical Development
Lisi Xie

View Development Timeline ↗

/05 Next Project

A hands-first mixed-reality dating experience designed to reduce conversation fatigue.