Research — MIT Media Lab

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

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neural interfacing and control
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bionics
crowdsourcing
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marginalized communities
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makers
wiesner
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human augmentation
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extended intelligence
microfabrication
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Cocoon: Speculative Dream Engineering

Cocoon is our vision of a programmable dream machine from the future. This device would be enabled by the synthesis of many devices under...

Project Research

The Telemetron Orchestra

When contemplating the future of life in space, we dream not only of rockets and off-world societies, but also of art, of leisure, and fr...

Project Research

SensorNets

SensorNets: Towards Reconfigurable Multifunctional Fine-grained Soft and Stretchable Electronic Skins.SensorNets is a bio...

Project Research

Gamma SENSE: Sensory Engaging Nebulised Scent Experience

The Gamma SENSE (Sensory Engaging Nebulised Scent Experience) is a pioneering instrumental addition to the gamma instrument series. The d...

Archived

Project Research

TRANS-DOCK

In the research realm of shape changing interfaces in human-computer interaction, a variety of pin-based shape display designs have been ...

Archived

Project Research

Programmable Synthetic Hallucinations

We are creating consumer-grade appliances and authoring methodologies that will allow hallucinatory phenomena to be programmed and utiliz...

Archived

Project Research

Pillow-Talk

Pillow-Talk is a set of connected objects intended to assist in the capture and recall digitally stored dreams and memories via natural a...

Archived

Publication Research

Venous Materials : Towards Interactive Fluidic Mechanisms

Mor, Hila, Ken Nakagaki, et al. "Venous Materials : Towards Interactive Fluidic Mechanisms." CHI '20, Honolulu, HI, USA, April 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376129

Project Research

Byte.it

Discreet Teeth Gestures for Mobile Device InteractionByte.it is a miniaturized, discreet interface that uses teeth gestures for hands-fre...

Archived

Project Research

PerForm

PerForm explores the intuitive meanings associated with the shape of objects, and how a deformable tool can allow for interaction based o...

Archived

Project Research

Wearable Wisdom

Wearable Wisdom: An Intelligent Audio-Based System for Mediating Wisdom and AdviceHaving good mentors and role models is important for pe...

Post Research

Jamming to Knitting, Music to Machines: Bringing interdisciplinary research to the manufacturing ecosystem

Here's my take on the future of textiles, as well as the connection between research and manufacturing.

Article Research

ETH Zurich at the WEF – RETHINKING Creativity

KnittedKeyboard at ETH Rethinking Creativity Pavilion

Archived

Project Research

PopBots: An early childhood AI curriculum

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

Archived

Project Research

Marauder's Map

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."The Marauder's Map from the Harry Potter universe uses UltraWide Band transmitters and receive...

Archived

Publication Research

Byte.it: Discreet Teeth Gestures for Mobile Device Interaction

Tomás Vega Gálvez, Shardul Sapkota, Alexandru Dancu, Pattie Maes, CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts (CHI’19 Extended Abstracts), May 4–9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland UK, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 6 pages, https://doi.org/10.1145/3290607.3312925

Article Research

A holographic meeting platform for collaborating from anywhere

"There's got to be a better way to share space and work together remotely—but computers or phones may not be the right tools."

Archived

Project Research

Connected Coral

Connected Coral integrates physical and digital elements in a visualization of the environmental impacts on reefs. This complex projectio...

Archived

Project Research

Grain Prism

The Grain Prism is a hybrid musical instrument that combines granular synthesis and live audio recordings. Presented in a capacitive touc...

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...

Project Research

RGBox

The RGBox is an experimental game to teach fundamentals of additive color mixing theory. As opposed to the behavior of pigments that...

Publication Research

Essence: Olfactory Interfaces for Unconscious Influence of Mood and Cognitive Performance

Judith Amores and Pattie Maes. 2017. Essence: Olfactory Interfaces for Unconscious Influence of Mood and Cognitive Performance. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '17). ACM, Denver, CO, USA. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3026004

Project Research

MoveU

MoveU is a wearable vestibular stimulation device for providing proprioceptive haptic feedback in virtual reality (VR). The device ...

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

Article Research

World Changing Ideas 2019: All the winners, finalists, and honorable mentions

AttentivU and AlterEgo received honorable mentions in the Experimental category.

Archived

Research

Advancing Wellbeing

Article Research

Q&A with Nataliya Kos’myna

Nataliya Kos’myna is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the MIT Media Lab, helping MITili evaluate the real-time biofeedback of learners

Post Research

Tangible influence: A stroll through Hiroshi Ishii’s living legacy

Celebrating Hiroshi Ishii's mentorship and groundbreaking research

Article Research

Augmented reality changing the factory landscape from PTC's room with a view

Valentin Heun describes his work with the PTC Reality Lab to transform factory operations by using augmented reality.

Article Research

Watch this device translate silent thoughts into speech

For people who can’t speak out loud due to illness or injury, AlterEgo might return their ability to communicate in real time.

Article Research

Could plants be the future of interface design?

Core77 reports on the Fluid Interfaces group’s work in cyborg botany.

Project Research

Elowan: A plant-robot hybrid

Elowan is a cybernetic lifeform, a plant in direct dialogue with a machine. Using its own internal electrical signals, the plant is inter...

Project Research

Cyborg Botany: Augmented plants as sensors, displays, and actuators

Plants can sense the environment, other living entities and regenerate, actuate or grow in response. Our interaction and communicati...

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 ...

Project Research

HeartBit

HeartBit is an interface designed for haptic heart rate biofeedback. A handheld heart beats alongside your own, mirroring the size, weigh...

Archived

Project Research

News Graph

This project aims to show a different picture of the data behind the news, looking at how we analyze, represent, and interact with it.&nb...

Archived

Article Research

Inside Professor Nanayakkara’s futuristic Augmented Human Lab

What can seamless human-computer interfaces do for humanity?

Publication Research

reMi: Translating Ambient Sounds of Moment into Tangible and Shareable Memories through Animated Paper

Kyung Yun Choi, Darle Shinsato, Shane Zhang, Ken Nakagaki, and Hiroshi Ishii. 2018. reMi: Translating Ambient Sounds of Moment into Tangible and Shareable Memories through Animated Paper. In The 31st Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology Adjunct Proceedings (UIST '18 Adjunct). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 84-86. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3266037.3266109

Archived

Project Research

reMi

Translating ambient sounds of moment into tangible and shareable memories through animated paperWe present a tangible memory notebook—reM...

Archived

Thesis Research

Talking Machines: Democratizing the Design of Voice-Based Agents for the Home

Project Research

Learning to dance in VR

Virtual reality can help realize mediated social experiences where we interact as richly with those around the world as we do with those ...

Article Research

The Leafy Green Cyborgs Are Coming

While plants at first glance look like static things, they are in fact very busy transmitting bio-electrochemical signals.

Publication Research

PhysioHMD: a conformable, modular toolkit for collecting physiological data from head-mounted displays

Bernal, Guillermo, et al. "PhysioHMD: a conformable, modular toolkit for collecting physiological data from head-mounted displays." Proceedings of the 2018 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers. ACM, 2018.

Post Research

A calm house is a smart house

Receptive Skins envisions a living building that silently interacts with air and temperature

Publication Research

Emotional Beasts: Visually Expressing Emotions through Avatars in VR

Bernal, Guillermo, and Pattie Maes. "Emotional Beasts: Visually Expressing Emotions through Avatars in VR." Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, 2017.