We live at the boundary between two worlds: the physical environment and cyberspace. Over a lifetime, people develop sophisticated abilities to perceive and manipulate the physical world, yet traditional Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) make use of only a small fraction of these embodied skills.
The Tangible Media Group, led by Professor Hiroshi Ishii, is internationally recognized for pioneering the influential HCI visions of Tangible Bits and Radical Atoms. These visions have significantly shaped the field’s research landscape by enriching human interaction with the digital world and drawing upon our multimodal senses and dexterous skills—abilities developed through a lifetime of engagement with physical objects and environments. ▶︎ https://www.media.mit.edu/videos/tm-making-digital-tangible-2019-05-06/
As we broaden our research focus from Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) to Human–Human Interaction (HHI), and from “remote space” to “remote time,” we are pursuing a new research vision called TeleAbsence. TeleAbsence extends the concept of telepresence into the past and the afterlife, addressing the emotional and temporal distance that arises when loved ones drift apart or pass away. ▶︎ https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/158451.
Transdisciplinary Design
TMG pursues deeply transdisciplinary research. We expect our researchers to speak fluently across the languages of art, design, science, and technology—and to express their ideas through all four dimensions.
Be Artistic & Analytic
Be Poetic & Pragmatic
Be Romantic & Realistic