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Research
Fluid Interfaces

Designing Systems for Cognitive Augmentation
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Responsive Environments

Augmenting and mediating human experience, interaction, and perception with sensor networks
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Tangible Media

Invent new tangible and embodied interactions that inspire and engage people
Project Research

👋 CoCo — A New Real-Time Co-Creative Platform for Young People

CoCo is a new live co-creative learning platform designed to empower educators to support young people in both physical and remote set…
Post Research

Valdemar Danry receives 2025 Google North America PhD Fellowship

With this funding, Valdemar will continue his work on AI for supporting human reasoning and critical thinking.
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Affective Computing

Advancing human wellbeing by developing new ways to communicate, understand, and respond to emotion
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Opera of the Future

Extending expression, learning, and health through innovations in musical composition, performance, and participation
Project Research

Co-designing Generative AI for Healthy Aging

The rapid advancement of Generative AI (GenAI) technologies presents new opportunities to support daily living for older adults. This proje…
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Multisensory Intelligence

Creating human-AI symbiosis across scales and sensory mediums to enhance productivity, creativity, and wellbeing
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Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek

Inventing disruptive technologies for nanoelectronic devices and creating new paradigms for life-machine symbiosis
Post Research

New England Journal of Medicine Series: Wearable Digital Health Technologies

Researchers in the Affective Computing group have been invited to edit a series of articles in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Personal Robots

Building intelligent personified technologies that collaborate with people to help them learn, thrive, and flourish.
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Human Dynamics

Exploring how social networks can influence our lives in business, health, governance, and technology adoption and diffusion
Project Research

MemPal: Wearable Memory Assistant for Aging Population

We're living in an aging society with cognitive loss placing stress on caregivers to monitor older adults struggling with memory decline.&n…
Archived
Project Research

MirrorFugue

MirrorFugue is an installation for a player piano that evokes the impression that the "reflection" of a disembodied pianist is playing the …
Archived
Article Research

TeleAbsence: Poetic encounters with the past

MIT researchers lay out design principles behind the TeleAbsence vision and how it could help people cope with loss
Article Research

A brief history of expansion microscopy

Since its 2015 debut by an MIT team, expansion microscopy has advanced research on kidneys, seeds, Alzheimer’s, viruses, and more.
Project Research

AttentivU

​There are currently  UROP openings for this project. AttentivU is a neural AI platform for wireless non-invasive sensing of pers…
Archived
Project Research

Theme | Attention, Memory & Learning

Several of our projects aim to support learning and creativity. While some systems focus on a specific skill to be strengthened, e.g.,…
Archived
Research
Media Lab Research Theme: Life with AI

Life with AI | Designing the future of smart systems to improve the human experience
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Media Lab Research Theme: Future Worlds

Future Worlds | Design and action for the future we want to live in
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Media Lab Research Theme: Decentralized Society

Decentralized Society | Architecting the new internet for the good of the people
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Media Lab Research Theme: Cultivating Creativity

Cultivating Creativity | Catalyzing a global movement enabling everyone to unlock and unleash their individual and collective creativity
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Media Lab Research Theme: Connected Mind + Body

Connected Mind + Body | Revolutionizing the future of mental and physical wellbeing
Project Research

Nanoscale mapping of bio-molecular building blocks of brain

For more details and recent updates visit:  https://web.mit.edu/deblina-sarkar/For understanding the brain structure, it is neces…
Post Research

MemPal selected for 2024 Prototypes for Humanity exhibition

MemPal was selected in the Health category.
Project Research

Brain Switch

The Brain Switch is a real-time, closed-loop brain-computer system allowing for real-time correspondence of simple user needs to a caretake…
Article Research

Whither BCIs?

Researcher Nataliya Kosmyna and other experts discuss the potential of and safeguards needed for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).
Article Research

Rosalind Picard on the ACM ByteCast

On the ACM ByteCast, Professor Rosalind Picard and host Scott Hanselman talk about her work in the Media Lab's Affective Computing group.
Article Research

Alexandra Rieger: Innovating Omnisensory Medicine at MIT & Harvard

PhD student Alexandra Rieger discusses her research combining music, engineering, neuroscience, and design.
Project Research

AI Systems that Use Questioning to Improve Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is an essential human skill. Despite the importance of critical thinking, research reveals that our reasoning ability suf…
Article Research

‘Brain-computer interface’ allows user to move objects with mind

Professor Pattie Maes and research scientist Nataliya Kosmyna demonstrate a wearable brain-computer interface called AttentivU.
Article Research

How sensory gamma rhythm stimulation clears amyloid in Alzheimer’s mice

The study, co-authored by Ed Boyden, finds stimulating key brain rhythms with light + sound could drive clearance of an Alzheimer’s protein.
Article Research

Imaging method reveals new cells and structures in human brain tissue

The new imaging method is based on expansion microscopy, which was developed in Professor Ed Boyden’s lab in 2015.
Project Research

▓▒░ TeleAbsence

People die twice.First, when they die.Then when they are forgotten.Rokusuke Ei (1933-2016)
Project Research

Thinking Cap

Find out more about the new version of the system, "The Thinking Cap 2.0" here.Peoples' mindsets, meaning their beliefs about their own int…
Post Research

MIT AI for Filmmaking Hackathon 2023 Brings Dreams to Life

Ruihan Zhang, a student in the Molecular Machines group, was lead organizer of this event in collaboration with MIT Film Makers Association
Article Research

Inside your dreamscape

Dream-hacking techniques can help us create, heal and have fun. They could also become tools of commercial manipulation.
Article Research

That moment when you’re nodding off is a sweet spot for creativity

A new study finds people are more creative after waking from the earliest stage of sleep, especially when guided to dream about a topic.
Article Research

Here's how to use dreams for creative inspiration

Researchers from the Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces group and Harvard Medical School find that brief naps appear to enhance creativity.
Article Research

Quick catnaps may spark creativity

The NIH reports on research from the Fluid Interfaces group and Harvard Medical School investigating the effect of naps on creativity.
Article Research

Neuroscientists warn advertisers are trying to 'weaponize sleep' by plugging into your dreams

“The potential for misuse of these technologies is as ominous as it is obvious.”
Article Research

"Dream glove" boosts creativity during sleep

In a new study, researchers from the Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces group & Harvard Medical School find that brief naps can enhance creativity
Article Research

Want to be more creative? Try dream-hacking while you sleep

The Washington Post reports on research from the Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces group & Harvard Medical School that naps could aid creativity.
Article Research

Behind the veil of hypnagogic sleep

Media Lab postdoc Adam Haar Horowitz discusses using “dream engineering” techniques to give people more control over their dreams.
Project Research

Targeted Dream Incubation

Targeted dream incubation (TDI) is a methodology for guiding (or “incubating”) dreams towards specific themes. Please read the FAQ below to…
Project Research

Dormio: Interfacing with Dreams

InspirationSleep is a forgotten country of the mind. A vast majority of our technologies are built for our waking state, even though a thir…
Archived
Project Research

Sonic enrichment at the zoo

This project is a collaboration between the MIT Media Lab and the San Diego Zoo to design and build interactive sonic enrichment systems fo…
Archived
Article Research

Researchers studying electrical signals in human brains are getting a little closer to reading our minds

On The World by PRX and WGBH, researcher Nataliya Kosmyna talks about advances in and potential applications for brain-computer interfaces.
Article Research

Horse sense about AI

In Psychology Today, author William Poundstone considers research from the Fluid Interfaces group in light of the Clever Hans effect.
Project Research

Influencing human–AI interaction by priming beliefs about AI can increase perceived trustworthiness, empathy, and effectiveness

AbstractAs conversational agents powered by large language models become more human-like, users are starting to view them as companions rat…
Archived
Project Research

JoyBranch

The Joy Branch project explores different user interfaces to allow parrots to shape their sonic environment.  Animal agency—contr…
Archived
Article Research

Rébecca Kleinberger, From DJ Macaw to Video-Flocking: Leveraging audio technology for animal’s social and cognitive enrichment

Alum Rébecca Kleinberger discusses her work at the intersection of new technology, animal-computer interaction, and the sonic environment.
Article Research

The future of intelligence (artificial and otherwise)

Media Lab Professor Alex 'Sandy' Pentland, MIT CSAIL Director Daniela Rus, and Prof. Josh Tenenbaum discuss the future of intelligence.
Article Research

For multimedia artist Nicole L'Huillier, sound is a portal for change

Opera of the Future PhD candidate Nicole L'Huillier discusses her multimedia artwork with WBUR.
Article Research

The ethics and tech of dream seeding

In Discovery Magazine, Media Lab postdoc Adam Haar Horowitz and other researchers discuss the possible ethical issues of influencing dreams.
Article Research

Does dream inception work?

Using Dormio, a project from the Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces research group, poet Will Dowd set out to pioneer a new reading experience.
Article Research

Virtual reality system lets you stop and smell the roses

Media Lab alum Judith Amores talks to Scientific American about a lightweight, wireless interface to deliver scents to VR users.
Article Research

Unlocking the Power of Goosebumps: The Surprising Emotional Effects of Aesthetic Chills

A new study suggests that experiencing aesthetic chills, or goosebumps, during stimuli like music and films can lead to increased emotions.
Archived
Research
Social Machines

Promoting deeper learning and understanding in human networks
Article Research

CoCo: A real-time co-creative learning platform for young people

Media Lab PhD students Manuj Dhariwal + Shruti Dhariwal introduce a new paradigm of creative collaboration in digital learning environments
Article Research

A chatbot that asks questions could help you spot when it makes no sense

Researchers from Fluid Interfaces presented this research at the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
Publication Research

The Thinking Cap 2.0: Preliminary Study on Fostering Growth Mindset of Children by means of Electroencephalography and Perceived Magic

Nataliya Kosmyna, Alexandra Gross and Pattie Maes. “The Thinking Cap 2.0”: Preliminary Study on Fostering Growth Mindset of Children by means of Electroencephalography and Perceived Magic using Artifacts from Fictional Sci-Fi Universes. In Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 761–767.
Archived
Project Research

Paper Dreams

Paper Dreams explores how human creativity can be supported by artificial intelligence.Prior research on AI and creativity has primarily fo…
Archived
Article Research

New Study Highlights Opportunities for Artificial Emotional Intelligence

MIT uses affective computing in efforts to improve human mental health.
Article Research

Microscopy technique reveals hidden nanostructures in cells and tissues

Separating densely packed molecules before imaging allows them to become visible for the first time.
Archived
Research
Object-Based Media

Changing storytelling, communication, and everyday life through sensing, understanding, and new interface technologies
Article Research

MIT Integrated Learning Initiative project focuses on focus

AttentivU smart glasses designed to help wearers tune into a task and tune out the world.
Article Research

The Science Behind Creativity

Seli is an assistant professor at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and also an artist. He uses Dormio to tap into hypnagogia.
Article Research

Podcast: Night Shifts

Perchance to dream engineer: on new research into our sleeping minds