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Link
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Summary
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2006 - present
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A high speed wearable wireless sensor network that enables direct measurement and analysis of the extreme forces that an athlete's body experiences during activity. These measurements allow sports medicine doctors to understand, treat and prevent sports injuries. |
Sensor
Networks
Biomechanics
Sports Medicine
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2006-present
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A lab-wide sensor network platform designed to detect and capture fragmented events of human behavior that can be collected and sequenced
into a cohesive narrative that conveys a larger overall meaning. This project also looks at the development of parametric models
of narrative that can be mapped on to sensor-detectable elements of human activity.
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Human-Centric Sensing
Video Networks
Phenomenology
Experiential Design
Narratology
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2006-2008
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Micropower sensate tags for supply-chain management and security applications. These wireless sensor nodes are low-cost devices that monitor many modalities relevant to shipping and supply-chain needs. They keep extremely low standby current, asychronously waking up to exceptional phenomena with dynamically adjustable thresholds. |
Sensor
Networks
Power Management
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2006-present
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Star Trek style Tricorder that lets you 'See through the walls' by using multi hop sensor networks.
An Augmented Reality platform for sensor networks. |
Sensor
Networks
Augmented Reality
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2006-present
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Virtual and real worlds that reflect, influence, and merge
into each other by means of deeply embedded
sensor/actuator networks.
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Sensor
Networks
Dual Reality
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2005-2008
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A power strip imbued with sensing, computational, and
communication capabilities in order to form the backbone
of a sensor network in domestic and occupational
environments.
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Sensor
Networks
Ubiquitous Computing
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2005-present
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Development of a low-cost system to track the precise (cm-scale) 3-D position of large numbers of objects tagged with passive SAW microwave RF transponders at short-range (3-100m) and in real time.
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Ubiquitous Computing
Mobile Sensor Networks
Localization
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2005-2008
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An automated framework for generating a population of classifiers for power-efficient detection in wearable sensors.
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Power Management
Adaptive Systems
Wearable Computing
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2003-2004
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Research into devices that can use the actuation and navigational intelligence of hosts present in the environment.
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Power Harvesting
Mobile Sensor Networks
Robotics
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2003-2004
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A sensor-rich adaptive gesture and affordance learning platform for electronic music control.
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Adaptive interfaces
Multi-DOF sensing
Electronic music control
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2003-2007
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A versatile
wearable computer platform in the form of a badge, featuring three
processors, RF and IR communication, built in microphone, audio
output, large LED display and LCD capability, pager vibrator, large
flash memory capacity, and extensive expansion possibilities. Designed
to enable a wide variety of applications where mobile and social
computing intersect.
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Wireless Sensor Clusters
Wearable Systems
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A compact RF transceiver card, originally developed for the UberBadge
project, but useful for many different applications.
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Wireless Sensor Clusters
Wearable Systems
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In association with TTT sponsor Schott Glass, this project explores
various techniques for transduction in glass ceramic cooktops.
We have developed a capacitive slider for sensing continuous fingertip
position across the glass, several techniques of sensing the presence
and size of pots above the glass, haptic response to capacitive
button activation, micropower wakeup of cooktop electronics with
quasipassive sensing, and remote measurement of glass temperature
above a burner via IR and acoustic monitoring.
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Sensor Architectures
Interactive Surfaces
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2003-2004
Trible
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The "Trible" (Tactile Reactive Interface Based on Linked
Elements) is an excursive in dense distributed sensing, computation,
and actuation. It has the form factor of a ball, tiled with a
multimodal sensate "skin" consisting of 32 networked
elements. Each tile measures pressure at 3 locations, temperature,
sound via a microphone, illumination, and dynamic tactile stimulation
with up to 12 channels of protruding, touch-sensitive "whiskers".
Each tile can also respond with a small audio speaker, a pager
vibrator, and a bright RGB LED. There is no central processor
- each tile talks to its neighbors through conductors in the frame.
The Trible is a research platform for the application of decentralized
control and distributed estimation to human-computer interaction.
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Sensate Media
Perceptive Objects
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Small
bottlecap-sized computers, each with two "thumbtack-like"
rear-protruding pins, draw their power from a layered composite
into which they are pushed and communicate with neighbors via infrared
or capacitive coupling. Provisions are made for simple sensors to
be easily added to each pushpin, enabling the system to serve as
a testbed for developing algorithms for extremely high-density,
smart sensor networks.
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Sensate Media
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A compact, configurable wireless sensing system,
for which several sensing boards (e.g., tactile, inertial, sonar,
etc.) have been designed. These boards can be stacked in any order
and configuration atop a main processor/RF board, allowing the
sensor suite to be easily customized. A TDMA polling scheme enables
multiple stacks to be used simultaneously. Although it has been
primarily designed for wearable applications, this device serves
as a general platform for compact multimodal sensing.
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Sensor Architectures
Wireless Sensor Clusters
Wearable Systems
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By measuring many (e.g., 20) different parameters
at each foot using our Sensor Stack, these shoes become a wearable
gait laboratory. Data is analyzed for features indicative of particular
gait problems. This system, in collaboration with the MGH Biomotion
Laboratory, is intended to diagnose gait conditions and provide
real-time corrective feedback to the patient.
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Embedded Healthcare
Wireless Sensor Cluster
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An sensorcentric object model for distributed
systems.
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Wireless Sensor Clusters
Sensate Media
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This project explores microwave sensing for detecting
noncontact gesture. Several systems have been developed and deployed,
including very-low powered Doppler motion-sensing radars with
onboard digital feature extraction and modified swept-Doppler
ranging radars.
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Sensor Architectures
Perceptive Spaces
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2000-2004
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In collaboration
with the University of Limerick a sensate floor is made from networked
sensor tiles, each of which has over a dozen small pressure sensors
connected to an embedded computer. All tiles are networked when
they are snapped together. Local communication between tiles establishes
an ad-hoc network. Sensor signals are compared across tiles, enable
stimuli from dynamic sources, such as footsteps, to be clustered
and abstracted into a basic set of parameters, which are routed
peer-peer across connected tiles to an external computer. |
Sensate Media
Expressive Interfaces
Perceptive Spaces
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Precision capacitive sensing is used to determine
the dimension of an actively-controlled nanometer-scale gap. This
project, a collaboration with Alex Slocum's group in MIT's Mechanical
Engineering Department, has many applications in biochemistry
and nanoscale chemistry.
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Sensor Architectures
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A flashlight
with an optically coded beam quasi-passively wakes up active tags
sleeping at extremely low power drain. If the tag's ID matches the
interrogating beam's request, a tag-mounted LED flashes. The compact
tags can be mounted on the edge of removable media, for example,
allowing a particular item on a crowded shelf to be found by merely
scanning the flashlight across. The metaphor of seeking real-world
objects with a flashlight is thus extended into the realm of data.
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Micro/Self Power
Perceptive Spaces
Wireless Sensor Clusters
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Knocks
and taps across a large sheet of glass are detected by a set of
pickup transducers, then characterized by their frequency content
and located via differential timing. Essentially any single-paned
window can be converted into the equivalent of a touch screen by
this inexpensive technique, with no hardware mounted outside the
glass.
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Interactive Surfaces
Perceptive Spaces
Expressive Interfaces
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An extremely low cost
and compact wireless motion sensor sends out a brief RF pulse
when jerked. As this device is very inexpensive, it can be given
away as a "ticket" to an event, allowing large audiences
to kinetically interact with responsive media. Feature extraction
algorithms and content mapping strategies to exploit the human
"schooling" and self-organizing reflexes with this system.
Although our research looks at interactive dance as an application,
other uses (e.g., interactive gesture and games at sports events,
conventions, and large concerts, very low-cost, wireless shock
monitoring of packages, etc.) abound.
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Wireless Sensor Clusters
Expressive Interfaces
Micro/Self Power
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A Swept-RF magnetically coupled resonant tag
reader has been developed that exhibits enhanced stability, high
resolution, and the ability to address up to three reader coils.
This enables an ensemble of tagged objects to be wirelessly tracked
in 3 dimensions. This device has been used in a musical environment
that explores high-level gestural control of musical structure
(e.g., the definition, manipulation, and overdubbing of musical
sequences and arpeggiation) in live performance.
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Expressive Interfaces
Magnetic Tag Tracking
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An interactive space has been designed that consists
of a carpet atop a mesh of piezoelectric wire (tracking foot position
and dynamic pressure) and a pair of Doppler microwave motion sensors
(to respond to movement of the arms and upper body). This system
has been used for several immersive musical installations, and
is now a permanent installation at the MIT Museum.
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Perceptive Spaces
Interactive Surfaces
Expressive Interfaces
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This project has resulted in a batteryless pushbutton
that wirelessly transmits a 12-bit digital code to the vicinity
(e.g., 25-100 feet, depending on the RF environment) when pressed.
This enables digital controls, from light switches to garage door
openers, to be embedded essentially anywhere, without worrying
about battery life or wiring.
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Micro/Self Power
Wireless Sensor Clusters
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A very low cost active magnetic tag tracker has
been developed to track the position and absolute orientation
of a PDA around a set of reader coils. Three such tracking stations
have been built and installed for the "Atmospheres"
installation at the MOMA "Workspheres" design exhibition.
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Magnetic Tag Tracking
Expressive Interfaces
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Free-gesture
musical controllers suffer from the drawback of having no tactile
(and often no visual) reference for their player, hence they are
difficult to competently master. This project has developed a hybrid
musical controller, consisting of a Theremin-like, free-gesture
capacitive hand sensor in the horizontal axis, punctuated by an
array of vertically-directed rangefinding lasers on mechanical carriages
that can be moved to preassigned positions. The lasers, in light
fog, are seen as references (or frets) - the position of the hand
is also detected along the laser beams, affording another channel
of expressive control. |
Expressive Interfaces
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This project
draws on ideas from distributed, embedded, and parallel computing
in order to address the creation and management of databases composed
of large collections of physical objects (e.g. mini DVs in a rack
or books in a library). An IR interrogation beamed at one object
is transferred between neighboring objects peer-peer, diffusing
to all objects in the environment (e.g., in the bookshelf). The
sought-after item then illuminates an indicator. |
Sensate Media
Perceptive Spaces
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This project
is a design study for a TDMA basestation to be used with very low
power CMOS digital transmitters developed at MIT's MTL for wireless
sensor systems. |
Wireless Sensor Clusters
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Several
reader systems have been developed to wirelessly track the position
of magnetically-coupled resonant tags. By making the tag's resonance
frequency a function of a local parameter (e.g., pressure or controller
displacement), the tag can also become a sensor. These systems have
been used to develop several demonstrations of "tangible bits"
(where simple objects become controllers), the most engaging of
which is a multimodal music environment called "Musical Trinkets." |
Magnetic Tag Tracking
Expressive Interfaces
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An inexpensive
scanning laser rangefinder has been developed to track bare hands
against a large interactive display. This system provides a simple
retrofit to any large surface - by putting the rangefinder in one
corner, a large virtual "touchscreen" is created, with
hand tracking insensitive to background light. This system has been
used in public with several interactive applications ranging from
information browsers to musical interfaces. |
Interactive Surfaces
Expressive Interfaces
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An inexpensive,
compact package has been developed to monitor traffic (magnetically
sensing passing cars) and detect local road conditions (e.g., temperature
and moisture). A summary is wirelessly broadcast to a receiver mounted
above the road within circa 300 meters of the sensor package. As
the specified battery is projected to last for over a decade (depending
on conditions), a network of these low-cost packages can be embedded
into the roadbed, allowing the traffic report to be generated right
in the street. |
Wireless Sensor Clusters
Perceptive Spaces
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A simple
scripting framework has been created to recognize combinations of
simple "atomic" gesture components in data from body-mounted
sensors. Much as the way in which phonemes combine to form words,
the user is able to specify a script of sequential microgestures
that form a desired macroscopic gesture. When sensor data makes
a good match with a specified script, the gesture is detected. This
algorithm is extremely efficient and is able to run in real time
on a low-end PDA, for example. A pair of small, wireless, handheld,
6-axis inertial measurement units (as shown here) were constructed
to capture gesture and test this framework. |
Wireless Sensor Clusters
Perceptive Objects
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A compact
suite of medical instruments has been integrated into a kit with
a connected palmtop computer. Software has been written to guide
a medical assistant through the process of running the needed tests
on a patient, collecting the required data, and transmitting it
to a remote medical facility for diagnosis. This system has been
used with the LINCOS installations to provide medical care in rural
Costa Rica. |
Embedded Healthcare
Wireless Sensor Clusters
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Electricity
is generated while walking by flexing and pressing compact piezoelectric
elements unobtrusively embedded into a shoe sole. As a demonstration,
a self-powered wireless digital ID code is transmit directly from
the shoe after every few steps. |
Micro/Self Power
Wearable Systems
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A suite
of 16 diverse sensor channels is embedded into each of a pair of
shoes. All parameters are wirelessly broadcast directly from the
shoes to a nearby basestation with 50 Hz full-state updates. A very
early example of compact multimodal wireless sensing, this system
has been designed and used for interactive dance. With so many degrees
of freedom measured, even a simple musical rulebase enables a dancer
to produce an engaging sonic accompaniment. |
Wireless Sensor Clusters
Expressive Interfaces
Wearable Systems
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A wideband,
dispersionless monopulse acoustic receiver can theoretically be
constructed with continuously-tapered, co-located subapertures.
Such a device would have the capability of locating the direction
of arrival of sonic transients by calculating a simple sum and ratio.
This project has built and characterized such a device. |
Sensor Architectures
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A large
mylar balloon has been bonded to a piezoelectric foil sheet so it
can act as both a microphone and a loudspeaker. A set of electronics
has been designed for the balloon to detect significant audio activity,
and play a selection from a set of prerecorded audio samples when
the activity ceases,essentially enabling one to have a "dialog"
with the balloon. Over 50 such balloon systems were produced and
installed all over the Weisner Building for the Media Lab's 10'th
anniversary celebration. |
Perceptive Objects
Sensor Architectures
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An 16-element
array of 4 x 4 programmable electrodes was built in order to study
electric field imaging in air. Each electrode could dynamically
be assigned to either transmit or receive. |
Sensor Architectures
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Many different
musical controllers (ranging from digital batons to sensor chairs)
were designed and constructed for the "Brain Opera", a
very large interactive musical installation that was produced at
the MIT Media Lab and toured throughout the world. |
Expressive Interfaces
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