Media Arts and Sciences (Media Lab)

Clipart of someone with laptop and lab equipment

Startup makes labs smarter

Platform connects individual pieces of lab equipment, compiles data in the cloud for speedier, more accurate research.

January 25, 2018

Giant Otter Technologies, founded by artificial intelligence video game developer Jeff Orkin, an MIT Media Lab alumnus, has developed a platform that uses AI algorithms and crowdsourced annotators to build a natural-language database that helps chatbots expertly navigate human conversations.

Bots that talk more like people

AI platform allows chatbots to draw on robust language database to better navigate human conversation.

January 23, 2018

MIT researchers have developed hardware that uses electric fields to move droplets of chemical or biological solutions around a surface, mixing them in ways that could be used to test thousands of reactions in parallel.

Programmable droplets

Using electric fields to manipulate droplets on a surface could enable high-volume, low-cost biology experiments.

January 19, 2018

Comparing of the cascaded GHz approach with Kinect-style approaches visually represented on a key. From left to right, the original image, a Kinect-style approach, a GHz approach, and a stronger GHz approach.

New depth sensors could be sensitive enough for self-driving cars

Computational method improves the resolution of time-of-flight depth sensors 1,000-fold.

December 21, 2017

An illustration of real-world behavioral commonalities in raw data of transactions.

Inventing the “Google” for predictive analytics

Platform analyzes big data to answer plain-language business queries in minutes instead of months.

December 19, 2017

Graviky Labs has developed technology that attaches to exhaust systems of diesel generator chimneys to capture particulate matter (PM). Scientists at Graviky then treat the soot to turn it into ink, called Air-Ink, for artists around the world.

Recycling air pollution to make art

Startup’s system captures particle matter from diesel exhaust and turns it into inks and paints.

November 26, 2017

CityScope Andorra is a 3-D augmented-reality platform that visualizes complex urban data on a small-scale model of the country. Users can interactively test scenarios on the model, such as how many parks to include in a city, adjust heights of buildings, calculate the optimal mix of residential and commercial real estate, and whether to allow private vehicles or only car-share services. The impact...

Small European nation becomes a “living lab” for urban innovation researchers

Andorra funds MIT Media Lab technologies that, in turn, help improve the nation’s cities.

October 13, 2017

A new flexible piezoelectric sensor is 2 by 2.5 centimeters and can be rolled up and swallowed. “For the first time, we showed that a flexible, piezoelectric device can stay in the stomach up to two days without any electrical or mechanical degradation,” assistant professor Canan Dagdeviren, left, says. Dagdeviren is next to researcher Giovanni Traverso.

Flexible sensors can detect movement in GI tract

Ingestible devices could diagnose gastrointestinal slowdown or monitor food intake.

October 10, 2017

“Before we can trust machines like autonomous vehicles, we have a number of challenges,” says professor Iyad Rahwan.

3 Questions: Iyad Rahwan on the “psychological roadblocks” facing self-driving cars

MIT Media Lab professor considers the trust gap between people and autonomous vehicles.

September 11, 2017

MIT engineers have devised a way to automate the process of monitoring neurons in a living brain using a computer algorithm that analyzes microscope images and guides a robotic arm to the target cell. In this image, a pipette guided by a robotic arm approaches a neuron identified with a fluorescent stain.

Robotic system monitors specific neurons

Success rate is comparable to that of highly trained scientists performing the process manually.

August 30, 2017

MIT researchers have developed a system that enables small, safe, aerial drones to read RFID tags in large warehouses at a distance of several meters, while identifying the tags’ locations with an average error of about 19 centimeters.

Drones relay RFID signals for inventory control

System could save retailers billions lost through faulty inventory records.

August 25, 2017

After piloting its smart microgardening system in Boston homes and restaurants, and following a successful Kickstarter campaign last fall, SproutsIO is ramping up production and hitting the shelves in a few months.

SproutsIO aims to power a “Personal Produce” movement

Smart, soil-free microgarden lets users optimize growing conditions while cutting water and resource use.

July 26, 2017

Twine has developed a platform that lets users build customized disease-management and care plans on an app, which then sends alerts about when to take medications, tracks the patient’s various health goals, and offers key analytics, among other features.

Coaching platform improves health outcomes, lowers medical costs

New app lets patients work alone or with others to prevent, monitor, and reverse chronic disease.

July 21, 2017

A new technique for imaging biopsy samples relies on an approach known as expansion microscopy, in which the researchers expand a tissue sample to 100 times its original volume before imaging it.

Microscopy technique could enable more informative biopsies

Expanding tissue samples before imaging offers detailed information about disease.

July 17, 2017

MIT researchers have developed a sampling scheme that is unconstrained by bandwidth, allowing analog-to-digital conversion without “clipping."

Ultra-high-contrast digital sensing

Technique could lead to cameras that can handle light of any intensity, audio that doesn’t skip or pop.

July 14, 2017

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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