Research
Space Enabled

Advancing justice in Earth's complex systems using designs enabled by space
Research
Conformable Decoders

Converting the patterns of nature and the human body into beneficial signals and energy
Research
City Science

Looking beyond smart cities
Project Research

Microgravity Research Flights with the Space Exploration Intiative

The Space Exploration Initiative charters an annual ZERO-G parabolic flight for 10-15 projects and 25 researchers across MIT Media Lab, sev…
Article Research

Life in space: Preparing for an increasingly tangible reality

The Space Exploration Initiative supports research across and beyond MIT in two microgravity flights this spring.
Research
Lifelong Kindergarten

Engaging people in creative learning experiences
Research
Biomechatronics

Enhancing human physical capability
Project Research

Gastronomy And Beyond

Gastronomy and Beyond (G+B) aims to unite individuals who contribute to innovation in the realms of culture, products, territories, sustain…
Research
Personal Robots

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

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

Fluid Expressions - Art and Craft in Microgravity

When imagining human life in space, how will we express our humanity and creativity in an alien environment? Can the art we make both refle…
Research
Responsive Environments

Augmenting and mediating human experience, interaction, and perception with sensor networks
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Media Lab Research Theme: Decentralized Society

Decentralized Society | Architecting the new internet for the good of the people
Research
Media Lab Research Theme: Life with AI

Life with AI | Designing the future of smart systems to improve the human experience
Project Research

Conformable Ultrasound Breast Patch (cUSBr-Patch) for Deep Tissue Scanning and Imaging

Ultrasound is widely used for tissue imaging such as breast cancer diagnosis; however, fundamental challenges limit…
Project Research

conformable Ultrasound Patch (cUSP) For Cavitation-Enhanced Transdermal Drug Delivery

Ultrasound-induced transdermal drug delivery (sonophoresis) has long lingered in the by-lanes of academic and industrial research, and has …
Research
Space Exploration Initiative

Space Exploration Initiative
Research
Media Lab Research Theme: Connected Mind + Body

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

Designing Systems for Cognitive Support
Project Research

SNAPSHOT Study

The SNAPSHOT study seeks to measure Sleep, Networks, Affect, Performance, Stress, and Health using Objective Techniques. It is an NIH-funde…
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…
Project Research

II: Interoception Improvement

For those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the ability to understand, name, or recognize the sensations signifying different emotional …
Project Research

VALIS: 2023 Production

Tod Machover’s first opera (he has now composed many more groundbreaking ones) was VALIS, and it made history when it premiered for the 10t…
Project Research

Theme | Health & Wellbeing

We develop systems that support health and wellbeing, with a special focus on mental health. We design, study and apply technologies s…
Project Research

Living Memories

In collaboration with NTT DATAEvery human culture has developed practices and rituals associated with remembering those who have died. We a…
Research
Viral Communications

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

Media Lab research highlighted by MIT News in its wrap-ups of 2023 press coverage

The Media Lab is honored to have had its research and researchers highlighted in two 2023 end-of-year lists prepared by MIT News.
Research
Affective Computing

Advancing human wellbeing by developing new ways to communicate, understand, and respond to emotion
Project Research

Theme | Sleep + Dream Engineering

We  build technologies that interface with the sleeping mind. We track different sleep-stages using brain activity, muscle tensio…
Research
Media Lab Research Theme: Future Worlds

Future Worlds | Design and action for the future we want to live in
Project Research

The Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit

By Rachel BellisleOverview:The Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit (GLCS or “Skinsuit”) is an intravehicular activity suit for astronau…
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.
Project Research

HelioZZZ: a smart (material) sleep mask

HelioZZZ is an opacity changing eye mask that wakes you up with natural sunlight when you want it. The mask warms your eyes to help you fal…
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

"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
Publication Research

Improving Memory via Automated Targeted Memory Reactivation during Sleep

Whitmore, N. W., Harris, J. C., Kovach, T. & Paller, K. A. Improving Memory via Automated Targeted Memory Reactivation during Sleep. Journal of Sleep Research 2022.06.28.497977 (2022) doi:10.1101/2022.06.28.497977.
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.
Publication Research

Fascia Ecosystem: A Step Forward in Sleep Engineering and Research

Bernal, Guillermo, Malika Chhibber, Mradul Bhatnagar, Urvil Jivani, Nelson Hidalgo, Anthony Levasseur, and Pattie Maes. 2023. Fascia Ecosystem: A Step Forward in Sleep Engineering and Research. 45th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC’23), no. Sydney Australia, (July )
Publication Research

Pioneering Remote Sleep Research: A Comparative Study of Sleep Stage Parameters in Diverse Datasets for Enhanced Interventions.

Bernal, Guillermo, Malika Chhibber, Mradul Bhatnagar, Urvil Jivani, Nelson Hidalgo, Anthony Levasseur, and Pattie Maes. Pioneering Remote Sleep Research: A Comparative Study of Sleep Stage Parameters in Diverse Datasets for Enhanced Interventions. SLEEP 2023, the 37th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC (APSS), June 6, 2023.
Project Research

SleepStim

SleepStim is a framework for automatically recording sleep physiology  and presenting sensory stimuli in sleep, using consumer smartph…
Archived
Project Research

Real-time Smartphone-based Sleep Staging using 1-Channel EEG and Machine Learning

Automatic and real-time sleep scoring is necessary to develop user interfaces that trigger stimuli in specific sleep stages. Howe…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Masca

InspirationDreams are fascinating personally, therapeutically, and scientifically. Who hasn't woken up in the morning and wondered how they…
Archived
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
Archived
Project Research

Fascia Ecosystem: A Step Forward in Sleep Engineering and Research

Abstract— Millions suffer from sleep disorders, and sleep clinics and research institutions seek improved sleep study methods. This paper p…
Archived
Project Research

Dive

Dive is a project to explore and induce lucid dreams using mobile devices.Lucid dreams are dreams in which  you are aware that you're …
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

Sleep++

Sleep++ aims to improve sleep quality by stimulating the brain to enter deep sleep. Currently, insufficient and poor quality sleep represen…
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…
Research
Opera of the Future

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

Personalized Performance-Optimization Platform (AttentivU - P-POP)

​The environmental conditions of prolonged spaceflight pose significant psychological risks for astronauts. In particular, crews of future …
Research
Media Lab Research Theme: Cultivating Creativity

Cultivating Creativity | Catalyzing a global movement enabling everyone to unlock and unleash their individual and collective creativity
Project Research

Bio-Digital Wearables for Space Health Enhancement

Living in space could have significant physical and mental impacts on astronauts. Wearables have the potential to play a critical role in m…
Project Research

Space Sustainability Rating

The Space Sustainability RatingThe Space Sustainability Rating design team—comprised of the World Economic Forum, the European Space Agency…
Research
Sculpting Evolution

Cultivating wisdom through evolutionary and ecological engineering
Project Research

Nano-Implants for Wireless Brain Interfacing

Nano-Implants for Wireless Brain Interfacing
Project Research

Technology for Women’s Health

Technology for Women’s Health
Project Research

Radical treatment for pain and neurodegenerative diseases

Radical treatment for pain and neurodegenerative diseases
Project Research

Candlewax Rockets: A Green Alternative for In-Space Propulsion

The Space Enabled Research Group is exploring the potential of using beeswax and candle wax as potential fuels for satellites in space. Bee…
Research
MIT Center for Constructive Communication

Designing tools, methods and systems that connect rather than divide us to create a healthier society
Project Research

conformable Multimodal Sensory Facemask (cMaSK)

Facemasks are used to reduce exposure to viruses and other environmental hazards such as air pollution, and integrating wearable electronic…
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
Camera Culture

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

Community Biotechnology
Research
Signal Kinetics

Inventing, building, and deploying wireless sensor technologies to address complex problems in society, industry, and ecology
Research
Molecular Machines

Engineering at the limits of complexity with molecular-scale parts
Project Research

Peristaltic Suit

​Prolonged exposure to microgravity is known to cause various acute health risks, including muscle atrophy, bone loss, cardiovascular decon…
Article Research

The Loh Down on Science: Skin Deep

On "The Loh Down on Science," host Sandra Tsing Loh reports on research from the Conformable Decoders group.
Article Research

Ghost in the machine

With Ghost in the Machine, alum Misha Sra and collaborator Purav Bhardwaj invite participants to consider the anthropomorphization of AI,