Research
Space Exploration Initiative

Space Exploration Initiative
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Fluid Interfaces

Designing Systems for Cognitive Support
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Media Lab Research Theme: Connected Mind + Body

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

Interplanetary Gastronomy

The  Interplanetary Gastronomy research  aims to address the unique challenges and opportunities associated with eating in s…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Tasting Menu in Zero G

 A multi-course tasting menu was flown on a zero gravity flight in August 2019.  Five specially crafted dishes were consumed…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Molecular Gastronomy in Zero G

A molecular gastronomy experiment was flown on a zero gravity flight in August 2019, using spherification techniques to create recipes in z…
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Project Research

Mental Machine: Labour in the Self Economy

​Mental Machine: Labour in the Self Economy, 2022, is a live performance by Kawita Vatanajyankur made in collaboration with Pat Patara…
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…
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…
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

Fiducial Marker-Based Navigation for Autonomous UAVs (AUAVs)

Depending on the operational environment of an autonomous system, a great deal of perceptual uncertainty may be introduced to an object det…
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…
Research
Signal Kinetics

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

People and intelligent machines in a creative, symbiotic loop
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.
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Responsive Environments

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

New research from the Signal Kinetics research group is featured on "Science Without the Gobbledygook"

Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder discusses X-AR, the new research from the Media Lab’s Signal Kinetics group.
Article Research

MIT researchers develop augmented reality headset to help users see hidden objects

Using augmented reality, the X-AR system developed by the Signal Kinetics research group can guide users to find hidden objects.
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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.
Project Research

Towards a Congruent Hybrid Reality without Experiential Artifacts

​Situated VR: Towards a Congruent Hybrid RealityThe vision of Extended Reality (XR) systems is living in a hybrid reality or "Metaverse" wh…
Research
Opera of the Future

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

Adaptive Virtual Neuroarchitecture

Jain, A., Maes, P., Sra, M. (2023). Adaptive Virtual Neuroarchitecture. In: Simeone, A., Weyers, B., Bialkova, S., Lindeman, R.W. (eds) Everyday Virtual and Augmented Reality. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05804-2_9
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.
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Research
Collective Learning

Transforming data into knowledge
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.
Article Research

Unveiling the Invisible

Tamiko Thiel, an innovator in VR/AR who studied computer graphics and visual imaging, talks about her work and her career.
Article Research

Brelyon secures $15 million for Ultra Reality immersive technology

Media Lab spinoff Brelyon has raised $15 million in Series A financing to accelerate development of headset-free immersive displays.
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Research
ML Learning

ML Learning
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Research
Open Ocean

Open Ocean
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Research
Object-Based Media

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

Bird: a 3D Cursor for 3D Interaction in Virtual Reality

Bird is a hand-controlled pointing system that translates a user's finger movements and positions into the motion of a 3D pointer in a virt…
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Archived
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 fo…
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Archived
Project Research

EmotionalBeasts

With advances in virtual reality (VR) and physiological sensing technology, even more immersive computer-mediated communication through lif…
Archived
Publication Research

Body-Borne Reality: Risky Disembodiment in VR
Article Research

AI-generated characters are here, they’re just not evenly distributed

The Fluid Interfaces group + NTT DATA hosted Virtual Beings + Being Virtual, a workshop exploring positive uses of AI-generated characters
Post Research

Hacking Reality

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

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

The Interplanetary Cookbook

The Interplanetary Cookbook, developed by Maggie Coblentz, presents thought-provoking recipes and zero-g kitchenware for the future of life…
Publication Research

Increasing Embodiment for Desktop-Based Participants in Mixed Desktop and Immersive Collaborative Virtual Environments

Simonson, Aubrey and Pattie Maes. “Increasing Embodiment for Desktop-Based Participants in Mixed Desktop and Immersive Collaborative Virtual Environments.” (May 7, 2020).
Article Research

What’s it like to design a meal that floats?

Taking a taste of the sensory research of Space Exploration Initiative’s Maggie Coblentz
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…
Architecture Machine Group
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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.
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
Article Research

The artist-engineer in VR

At Sundance New Frontiers 2020, Xin Liu and Qinya (Jenny) Guo debuted Living Distance, a VR piece about the journey of Liu’s wisdom tooth.
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."
Project Research

The Blank Canvas

The Blank Canvas directs immersion inwards using virtual reality, augmenting awareness of the microscopic worlds inside each of us and the …
Project Research

Moments

Moments is a prototype designed for users to save special moments and to experience those moments in the future. Firstly, a multi-sens…
Project Research

BaguaMarsh

This project takes the idea of the unity between heaven and man of the ancient Chinese philosophy I ching (Book of Changes), combines …
Project Research

Loops

"Loops" combines the work of the Lab's Synthetic Characters group, Merce Cunningham, and digital artists Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar. A …
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Article Research

Merce Cunningham lives on in motion capture experience at Jacob's Pillow

Marc Downie, Paul Kaiser, and Shelley Eshkar collaborated on Loops, an exploration of Merce Cunningham's life and work.
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Research
Advancing Wellbeing

Advancing Wellbeing
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.
Post Research

Guillermo Bernal wins 2019 Schnitzer Prize

Guillermo Bernal believes virtual reality should be more expressive.
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Project Research

Living Observatory Installation: A Transductive Encounter with Ecology

In the Living Observatory installation at the Other Festival, we invite participants into a transductive encounter with a wetland environme…
Archived
Project Research

CocoVerse: A playground for co-creation and communication in virtual reality

Real-time collaborative self-expression in virtual reality 
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 in…
Article Research

Live-streaming a marshland for fun—and science

Researchers live-stream data in Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary with the hopes of better understanding wildlife restoration techniques.
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.
Article Research

Art, Science, Technology Inspires Walt Disney Imagineers at MIT Media Lab Event

“Happiness makes the world go round."
Archived
Project Research

Tree

Tree is a virtual experience that transforms you into a rainforest tree. With your arms as branches and body as the trunk, you experience t…
Archived