Fluid Interfaces
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Research Advisor: 
Pattie Maes
Mission statement: 
Integrating digital interfaces more naturally into our physical lives, enabling insight, inspiration, and interpersonal connections.

The Fluid Interfaces research group is radically rethinking the ways we interact with digital information and applications. We design interfaces that are more intuitive and better integrated in our daily lives. We investigate ways to augment the everyday objects and spaces around us, making them responsive to our attention and actions. The resulting augmented environments offer opportunities for learning and interaction and ultimately for enrich our lives.

What We're Looking For: 

Applicants who ideally:

  • are interested in inventing new interfaces for people to interact with information and with others;
  • are creative, inventive, and full of (radical) ideas;
  • are "hackers," not afraid to pick up the new skills they need to implement their visions;
  • are good team players;
  • have strong technical expertise (with backgrounds in programming and sensors/hardware); and
  • have prior expertise in relevant areas.

A background/interest in human computer interaction, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, design, arts, or entertainment is a plus.

Center Content
SixthSense
Our Work at a Glance

One of our projects, SixthSense, bridges the gap between the physical and digital worlds by augmenting the surfaces in front of the user with relevant information pulled from the web. It consists of a web camera and mini-projector worn around the neck, that enable interaction with information about the objects, people, and spaces around us. The camera recognizes the objects the user interacts with as well as hand gestures performed by the user. This data is processed on the cell phone and results in relevant information being pulled from the web and projected in front of the user.

Special Requirements: 

Please include a URL with additional information at the bottom of your "statement of research interests." Your web pages should document the different projects you have worked on: what they are, what your role was in each of them, what was interesting or innovative about each of them, and finally, some documentation of the results and/or relevant publications.

MIT Media Lab