Location

MIT Media Lab, E14-633

Description

What are the challenges in creating interfaces that allow a user to intuitively express his/her intentions? Today's HCI systems are limited, and exploit only visual and auditory sensations. However, in daily life, we exploit a variety of input and output modalities, and modalities that involve contact with our bodies can dramatically affect our ability to experience and express ourselves in physical and virtual worlds. Using modern biological understanding of sensation, emerging electronic devices, and agile computational methods, we now have an opportunity to design a new generation of 'intimate interaction' technologies.
This talk will present several approaches that use multi/cross modal interfaces and span projects in health, social interaction and entertainment. They include Stop-Motion Goggle, SmartSkin, Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation, and Straw-Like User Interface.

Biographies

Masahiko Inami is a professor in the School of Media Design at the Keio University (KMD), Japan. His research interest is in human I/O enhancement technologies including bioengineering, HCI and robotics. He received BE and MS degrees in bioengineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology and PhD in 1999 from the University of Tokyo. His research exploits all five senses for interaction. He proposed the concept of haptic augmented reality via projects such as SmartTools and SmartFinger. His team invented a galvanic vestibular stimulation-based interface to manipulate sensation of balance and walking trajectory. His scientific achievements include the Retro-reflective Projection Technology (RPT) known as "Optical Camouflage," which was chosen as one of the coolest inventions of 2003 by TIME magazine. His research has appeared at the Siggraph Emerging Technologies via 24 installations from 1997 through 2010. His installations have appeared at Ars Electronica.