Research
Space Exploration Initiative

Space Exploration Initiative
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…
Project Research

Detecting and Mapping Transparent or Mirror-like Surfaces with Lidar

Although lidar is widely used for mapping the 3D geometry of surfaces, the technology has historically been challenged by specular, or mirr…
Post Research

Hope Schroeder and collaborators receive CHI 2023 Best Case Study award

Congratulations to Hope Schroeder and collaborators on receiving the single Best Case Study award at CHI'23.
Project Research

"Picture the Audience" Exploring Private AR Face Filters for Online Public Speaking

This work will be presented  at the upcoming ACM CHI 2023 conference. By Joanne Leong, Florian Perteneder, Muhender Raj Rajv…
Project Research

AttentivU

There are currently  UROP openings for this project. AttentivU is  a  device, in the  form factor of a pair of gla…
Research
Tangible Media

Invent new tangible and embodied interactions that inspire and engage people
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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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Signal Kinetics

Inventing, building, and deploying wireless sensor technologies to address complex problems in society, industry, and ecology
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Camera Culture

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

"Picture the Audience...": Exploring Private AR Face Filters for Online Public Speaking

Joanne Leong, Florian Perteneder, Muhender Raj Rajvee, and Pattie Maes. 2023. “Picture the Audience...”: Exploring Private AR Face Filters for Online Public Speaking. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’23), April 23–28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 13 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581039
Project Research

Theme | Learning + Creativity

Several of our projects aim to support learning and creativity. While some systems focus on a specific skill to be strengthened, e.g.,…
Archived
Project Research

Essence Wearables: Biometric Olfactory Interfaces for Day and Night

Human-computer interaction (HCI) has traditionally focused on designing and investigating interfaces that provide explicit visual, auditory…
Archived
Publication Research

Wemoji: Towards Designing Complementary Communication Systems in Augmented Reality

Joanne Leong, Olivia Seow, Cathy Mengying Fang, Benny J. Tang, Rajan Vaish, and Pattie Maes. 2022. Wemoji: Towards Designing Complementary Communication Systems in Augmented Reality. In The Adjunct Publication of the 35th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST ’22 Adjunct), October 29-November 2, 2022, Bend, OR, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 3 pages.
Thesis Research

Investigating the Use of Synthetic Media and Real-Time Virtual Camera Filters for Supporting Communication and Creativity

Leong, Joanne. Investigating the Use of Synthetic Media and Real-Time Virtual Camera Filters for Supporting Communication and Creativity. 2021. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MS Thesis.
Publication Research

Exploring the Use of Real-Time Camera Filters on Embodiment and Creativity

Leong, Joanne, et al. "Exploring the Use of Real-Time Camera Filters on Embodiment and Creativity." Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2021.
Project Research

Synthetic Self-Perception

Perceptual illusions have the power to change our abilities and behaviours. Prior research in virtual reality (VR) has shown that transport…
Research
Beyond the Cradle

Beyond the Cradle
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Responsive Environments

Augmenting and mediating human experience, interaction, and perception with sensor networks
Research
Viral Communications

People and intelligent machines in a creative, symbiotic loop
Project Research

Augmented Reality with X-Ray Vision

X-AR is an augmented reality (AR) system that gives humans "X-Ray Vision" X-AR is a new AR headset that enables users to see things th…
Article Research

Augmented reality headset enables users to see hidden objects

The device could help workers locate objects for fulfilling e-commerce orders or identify parts for assembling products.
Article Research

Assistive tech gains at CES in Las Vegas

Spinoff Xander, founded by alum Alex Westner, provides real-time captions to help users with hearing loss follow in-person conversations.
Post Research

Spinoff Xander raises $1.4 million in pre-seed funding

Xander plans to launch its first product, XanderGlasses, designed for people with hearing loss or auditory processing challenges.
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City Science

Looking beyond smart cities
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Poetic Justice

Exploring new forms of social justice through art
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Future Sketches

Exploring the essence of code as a creative medium
Article Research

The One Earth Model: Geographic interoperability in the real-world metaverse

Michael Naimark considers the potential of the "real-world metaverse," which combines virtual experiences with specific physical places.
Post Research

Media Lab spinoff Xander honored at CES 2023

Co-founded by Media Lab alum Alex Westner, Xander will introduce its first product, XanderGlasses, at CES 2023.
Archived
Project Research

Using Shadows to See Behind Objects

The full text of our paper is available here.Sometimes the thing that we want to see is hidden behind something else. A neighboring vehicl…
Archived
Project Research

Wemoji

This project was produced as part of the   2021 Snap Creative Challenge, focused on "The Future of Co-located Social AR."Wem…
Archived
Project Research

TangiBel Soundscapes

Words are fleeting. Moments come and go, and what we vocalize “disappears into thin air."In this project, TangiBel Soundscapes, we propose …
Archived
Project Research

SensorNets

SensorNets: Towards Reconfigurable Multifunctional Fine-grained  Soft and Stretchable Electronic Skins.SensorNets is a bioin…
Research
MIT Center for Constructive Communication

MIT Center for Constructive Communication
Archived
Project Research

PsychicVR: Increasing mindfulness by using Virtual Reality and Brain Computer Interfaces

We present PsychicVR, a proof-of-concept system that integrates a brain-computer interface device and virtual reality headset to improve mi…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

ZoomADay - AI Synthesized Characters

#ZoomADay was a year long project exploring the creation and use of synthetic characters and deep fakes for use in online telepresence and …
Archived
Archived
Research
Open Ocean

Open Ocean
Archived
Research
Object-Based Media

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

ARTextiles: Promoting Social Interactions Around Personal Interests

Abstract data visualizations for enhancing social interactions through clothing and augmented reality.
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Inertia

Inertia is a platform for exploring physical interactions between real active agents and virtual elements in an augmented reality environme…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Bounce-Flash Lidar

In photography, illuminating a subject directly using an on-camera flash can result in unflattering photos. To avoid this, photographers o…
Archived
Project Research

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Pilot Simulator

With the advent of real-time photorealism (RTPR), virtual environments are now able to achieve higher degrees of engagement than ever befor…
Project Research

Domain Randomization & Synthetic Data Generation for AUAVs - Reducing Perceptual Uncertainty of Sim2Real Navigation

Navigation for autonomous UAVS (unmanned aerial vehicles) is a complex problem and physical field testing of associated tasks introduces a …
Project Research

Deep Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous UAVs (AUAVs)

Many tasks are not easily defined and/or too complex for supervised machine learning approaches. For these reasons, a technique known as&nb…
Post Research

Hacking Reality

XR technology is becoming increasingly important in a world where the need to know intersects with the need to experience.
Article Research

A guide to cyberarts: From bots to glitch, an annotated glossary for an age of augmented reality

Check out this list of cyberart projects compiled by The Boston Globe, which includes work by alum Alexander Reben and Prof. Ekene Ijeoma.
Project Research

Living Observatory: Sensor networks for documenting and experiencing ecology

Living Observatory is an initiative for documenting and interpreting ecological change that will allow people, individually and collectivel…
Project Research

Physiophone: Electrophysiology Sonification

The human body produces a variety of different electrophysiological signals from brain-waves (EEG) to the electrical activity of the heart …
Project Research

E-maki: XR-enabled Scroll for Interactive Museum Artifacts

E-maki is a collection of ancient, painted scrolls accompanied by a cross-reality app that give contextual information and interactive expe…
Project Research

City Science Lab @ Hamburg

MIT City Science is working with HafenCity University to develop CityScope for the neighborhood of Rothenburgsort in Hamburg, Germany. The …
Article Research

ACM ByteCast: Ramesh Raskar

Camera Culture head Ramesh Raskar talks to Rashmi Mohan about his interdisciplinary research and entrepreneurial endeavors.
Project Research

Andorra | Dynamic Urban Planning

View the main City Science Andorra project profile.Research in dynamic tools, mix users (citizens, workers) amenities, services, and land u…
Project Research

Deep Reality: An underwater VR experience to promote relaxation by unconscious HR, EDA, and brain activity biofeedback

We present an interactive virtual reality (VR) experience that uses biometric information for reflection and relaxation. We monit…
Publication Research

Imaging Behind Occluders Using Two-Bounce Light

Henley, C., Maeda, T., Swedish, T., & Raskar, R. (2020). Imaging Behind Occluders Using Two-Bounce Light. Computer Vision – ECCV 2020 Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 573-588. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-58526-6_34
Article Research

Bringing the benefits of in-person collaboration to the virtual world

The startup Spatial uses an augmented reality platform to make people feel like they’re working side by side.
Project Research

Modeling Auditory Memory

When we form memories, not everything that we perceive is noticed; not everything that we notice is remembered. Humans are excellent at f…
Archived
Project Research

Funnel Vision

MotivationThe need for inexpensive, reliable, 3D, 360-degree display technologies grows as augmented reality applications continue to incre…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Virtual Regalia

COVID-19 and virtual commencements around the world were not what many universities had planned for the graduating class of 2020. Walking a…
Archived
Project Research

Theme | CityScope

City Science researchers are developing a slew of tangible and digital platforms dedicated to solving spatial design and urban planning cha…
Archived
Project Research

Micronauts

Microbes are the foundation upon which life on Earth depends: they set the boundaries of habitability for all plants and animals and create…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

LUI: Large User Interface with Gesture and Voice Feedback

LUI is a scalable, multimodal web-interface that uses a custom framework of nondiscrete, free-handed gestures and voice to control modular …
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Connected Coral

Connected Coral integrates physical and digital elements in a visualization of the environmental impacts on reefs. This complex projection …
Archived
Project Research

AR Enhanced Wall Plants: Escape Pod

An environment of plants and mirrors that extends beyond the terrarium walls. 
Project Research

Taking a line on a walk

Bauhaus artist Paul Klee considered a line to be  one of the atomic elements of art and architecture. He famously described a line dra…
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 Laboratory)…
Archived
Project Research

Holographic Glasses for Augmented Reality

For my "How to Make Almost Anything" [HTMAA] class,  I attempted to build holographic glasses for augmented reality. These glasses wou…
Archived
Article Research

Touchless gesture controls on phones? Think bigger

Vik Parthiban and other AR/VR researchers talk to Wired about the future potential of gesture control for interaction design.
Publication Research

Experimental characterization of leaky-mode spatial light modulators fabricated via direct laser writing

Sundeep Jolly, Bianca Datta, Vik Parthiban, Daniel Smalley, and V. Michael Bove Jr. "Experimental characterization of leaky-mode spatial light modulators fabricated via direct laser writing", Proc. SPIE 10944, Practical Holography XXXIII: Displays, Materials, and Applications, 109440V (1 March 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2510174
Publication Research

Experimental demonstration of precise holograms using complex light modulation

Vik Parthiban, Rudolph N. Kohn Jr., Jinyang Liang, and Michael F. Becker "Experimental demonstration of precise holograms using complex light modulation", Proc. SPIE 9761, Emerging Digital Micromirror Device Based Systems and Applications VIII, 97610M (15 March 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2208316
Article Research

Siggraph 2019 offers a sneak peek into what’s next for AR, VR, and CG

Held this week at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Siggraph 2019 is all about the future of 2D and 3D digital worlds.
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.