Research — MIT Media Lab

We are an antidisciplinary research lab working to invent the future of

human-machine interaction
health
art
learning
artificial intelligence
architecture
robotics
consumer electronics
kids
networks
music
wearable computing
politics
entertainment
design
history
economy
cognition
archives
bioengineering
social science
storytelling
technology
machine learning
data
interfaces
developing countries
sensors
prosthetics
human-computer interaction
space
wellbeing
social robotics
computer science
social media
environment
engineering
privacy
ethics
civic media
imaging
civic technology
urban planning
affective computing
synthetic biology
neurobiology
communications
augmented reality
transportation
energy
virtual reality
data visualization
computer vision
biotechnology
blockchain
agriculture
biology
social change
food
banking and finance
crowdsourcing
3d printing
gaming
open source
government
manufacturing
genetics
systems
social networks
behavioral science
biomechanics
prosthetic design
industry
cryptocurrency
public health
wiesner
zero gravity
collective intelligence
fashion
makers
data science
performance
ocean
language learning
security
perception
nonverbal behavior
internet of things
ecology
construction
racial justice
extended intelligence
visualization
mapping
medicine
autonomous vehicles
community
physiology
long-term interaction
civic action
neural interfacing and control
climate change
gesture interface
networking
point of care
orthotic design
interactive
bionics
holography
trust
fabrication
pharmaceuticals
human augmentation
hacking
alumni
sports and fitness
startup
member company
autism research
open access
rfid
mechanical engineering
clinical science
member event
marginalized communities
primary healthcare
clinical trials
women
academia
soft-tissue biomechanics
gender studies
cognitive science
natural language processing
trade
randomized experiment
materials
chemistry
voice
real estate
microbiology
biomedical imaging
electrical engineering
gis
mechatronics
diversity
publishing
event
exhibit
metamaterials
installation

AlterEgo

AlterEgo is a non-invasive, wearable, peripheral neural interface that allows humans to converse in natural language with mach...

Research

Opera of the Future

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

Research

Fluid Interfaces

Designing systems for cognitive enhancement

Research

City Science

Looking beyond smart cities

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Signal Kinetics

Extending human and computer abilities in sensing, communication, and actuation through signals and networks

Project Research

Theme | CityScope

City Science researchers are developing a slew of tangible and digital platforms dedicated to solving spatial design and urban planning c...

Project Research

Dormio: Interfacing with Dreams

Sleep is a forgotten country of the mind. A vast majority of our technologies are built for our waking state, even though a third of our ...

Project Research

Engineering Dreams

Our dream is a sci-fi future, where dreams are controllable. We are working to build technology that interfaces with the sleeping mi...

Research

Space Exploration Initiative

Project Research

Paper Dreams

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

Archived

Project Research

Human-Robot Trust

Unconventional mixing of research fields introduces a new method to study human behavior using social robots.

Archived

Project Research

Emotionally Aware Robot Teammates

Emotionally supportive robots improve overall team functioning!

Archived

Project Research

Artificial listener with social intelligence

A social robot modifies its behavior to change what you think about it!

Archived

Research

Open Agriculture (OpenAg)

Open Agriculture Initiative (OpenAg)

Project Research

PhysioHMD

Virtual and augmented reality headsets are unique as they have access to our facial area, an area that presents an excellent opportunity ...

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

Archived

Seamlessly coupling the worlds of bits and atoms by giving dynamic physical form to digital information and computation

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Affective Computing

Advance human wellbeing by developing new ways to communicate, understand, and respond to emotion

Project Research

Designing robots in mixed reality

This is a joint proposal from graduate students Vik Parthiban (Media Lab) and Andrew Spielberg (MIT CSAIL, Distributed Robotics Laborator...

Archived

Project Research

MultiDIC: a MATLAB Toolbox for Multi-View 3D Digital Image Correlation

Three-dimensional Digital Image Correlation (3D-DIC) is a non-contact optical-numerical technique for evaluating the dynamic mechani...

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Human Dynamics

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

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Biomechatronics

Enhancing human physical capability

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Social Machines

Promoting deeper learning and understanding in human networks

Making the invisible visible–inside our bodies, around us, and beyond–for health, work, and connection

Publication Research

On prosthetic control: A regenerative agonist-antagonist myoneural interface

S. S. Srinivasan, M. J. Carty, P. W. Calvaresi, T. R. Clites, B. E. Maimon, C. R. Taylor, A. N. Zorzos, H. Herr, On prosthetic control : A regenerative agonist-antagonist myoneural interface, 2, eaan2971 (2017).

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Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence

Archived

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Collective Learning

Transforming data into knowledge

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Personal Robots

Building socially engaging robots and interactive technologies to help people live healthier lives, connect with others, and learn better

Project Research

Research Area | Medical Imaging Technologies Using Unorthodox Artificial Intelligence for Early Disease Diagnoses

Our published research findings listed below share key examples for reducing dependence on specialized medical devices, biological &...

Project Research

Research Area | Novel Ethical, Secure and Explainable Artificial Intelligence based Digital Medicines and Treatments

We have described validation of novel machine learning architectures for designing faster, safer, and more efficacious digital medicines ...

Archived

Research

Advancing Wellbeing

Project Research

Terrain-Adaptive Lower Limb Prosthesis

Although there have been great advances in the control of lower extremity prostheses, transitioning between terrains such as ramps or sta...

Archived

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Music, Mind and Machine

How to build intelligent music systems out of interacting audio-processing agents.

Project Research

Personalized Machine Learning for Future Health

The view on Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) diagnosis has shifted towards a more dynamic process in which clinical and pathological markers evo...

Project Research

Cilllia: 3D-printed micro pillar structures for surface texture, actuation, and sensing

In nature, hair has numerous functions such as providing warmth, adhesion, locomotion, sensing, and a sense of touch, as well as its well...

Post Research

Social robots as social catalysts: Collaborating with older adults as design research partners

When they’re valued as design research partners, older adults feel empowered to contribute to technology design.

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Scalable Cooperation

Reimagining human cooperation in the age of social media and artificial intelligence

Project Research

Personalized Animated Movies

Storytelling is a fundamental way in which human beings understand the world. Imagine watching a movie telling the story of your life, ho...

Project Research

Personal Food Computer

The OpenAg™ Personal Food Computer is a tabletop-sized, controlled environment agriculture technology platform that uses robotic systems ...

Project Research

Designing social robots for older adults

Most countries are projected to see the number of people ages 65 and older surpass the population under the age of 15 by 2050. The limita...

Project Research

PopBots: An early childhood AI curriculum

How can we add the missing "T" and "E" in preschool STEAM education?

Project Research

Machine Behavior

Machines powered by artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly mediate our social, cultural, economic, and ...

Article Research

Understanding machine behaviour

CIFAR Fellows Hugo Larochelle and Matthew Jackson argue for a new scientific discipline to study the broad effects of AI.

Research

Center for Extreme Bionics

Project Research

Neural interface technology for advanced prosthetic limbs

Recent advances in artificial limbs have resulted in the provision of powered ankle and knee function for lower extremity amputees and po...

Project Research

Transdermal Optogenetic Peripheral Nerve Stimulation

Optogenetic techniques have recently been applied to peripheral nerves as a scientific tool with the translatable go...

Project Research

Neural Interfaces

Nerve-Muscle Graft Chamber and micro-channel arrays tor interface to peripheral nerves for prosthesis control. This research effort ...

Publication Research

Machine behaviour

Rahwan, Iyad, Manuel Cebrian, Nick Obradovich, Josh Bongard, Jean-François Bonnefon, Cynthia Breazeal, Jacob W. Crandall, et al. “Machine Behaviour.” Nature 568, no. 7753 (April 2019): 477. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1138-y.

Post Research

Studying the behavior of AI

A new paper frames the emerging interdisciplinary field of machine behavior

Project Research

BrainBeat: Breath-based music therapy

Can we sonfiy calming breathing and passively influence a state of calm?Deep breathing has been scientifically proven to affect the heart...

Project Research

SPRING: A Smart Platform for Research, Intervention, and Neurodevelopmental Growth

SPRING is a custom-built hardware and software platform for children with neuro-differences. The system automates data acquisition, optim...

Project Research

Modulating peripheral and cortical arousal using a musical motor response task

We are conducting EEG studies to identify the musical features and musical interaction patterns that universally impact measures of arous...

Project Research

An EEG and motion-capture based expressive music interface for affective neurofeedback

This project examines how the expression granted by new musical interfaces can be harnessed to create positive changes in health and well...

Project Research

RoboChain: A secure data-sharing framework for human-robot interaction

A learning framework for secure, decentralized, computationally efficient data and model sharing among multiple robot units installed at...

Project Research

SkinBot: A wearable, skin-climbing robot

We introduce SkinBot: a lightweight robot that moves over the skin's surface with a two-legged suction-based locomotion mechanism and cap...

Project Research

Experiential Lighting: New user interfaces for lighting control

The vision of pervasive computing is now mainstream. These connected devices permeate every aspect of our lives. Yet, we remain tethered ...

Research

Viral Communications

Creating scalable technologies that evolve with user inventiveness

Project Research

Spatial Flux: Body and architecture in space

Structurally, zero gravity means that we do not have to contend with architecture's greatest arch-nemesis, gravity. This opens up a new w...

Project Research

Printflatables: Printing human-scale, functional, and dynamic inflatable objects

Printflatables is a design and fabrication system for human-scale, functional and dynamic inflatable objects. The user begins with specif...

Project Research

Tools to investigate societal impacts of robots and AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) agents in an embodied form, such as Jibo, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home, are increasingly becoming part of o...

Project Research

Escape Pod

The esc-Pod (or Escape Pod) is an exploratory platform for researchers investigating moments of refuge within our bustling work liv...

Project Research

AI, Automation, Labor, and Cities: How to map the future of work

Should workers worry about automation and AI?Many workers, policy makers, and researchers are asking themselves exactly this question. Bu...

Article Research

Why we should show machines some respect

Kate Darling explores the human implications of the ways we treat robots and other machines.

Publication Research

Toward understanding the impact of artificial intelligence on labor

Frank, Morgan R., David Autor, James E. Bessen, Erik Brynjolfsson, Manuel Cebrian, David J. Deming, Maryann Feldman, et al. “Toward Understanding the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Labor.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 25, 2019, 201900949. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1900949116.