Natasha Frost of Quartz speaks with graduate student Mostafa Mohsenvand about his work developing a new wearable device that could one day be used to help people with memory loss. Frost writes the device may help those suffering with Alzheimer’s by “making memories instantly accessible externally for those who may otherwise be unable to recall them.”
Spencer Kelly of BBC Click tests Dormio, a wearable device that allows researchers to track a user’s consciousness in the state between asleep and awake. “[R]esearch shows that you have a ten times increase in the likelihood of solving a problem if you have a dream about that problem in a nap,” says MIT graduate student Adam Haar Horowitz.
BBC News reporter Jane Wakefield writes about Dormio, a new device developed by Media Lab researchers that awakens users before they enter deep sleep in an attempt to study the period between wakefulness and deep sleep. “I see a future in which sleep is more useful and more accessible to us, where we understand it better," says graduate student Adam Haar Horowitz.
Fast Company reporter Steven Melendez writes that CSAIL researchers have created a new system that allows a robot to detect human brainwave patterns so it knows when it made a mistake. Melendez explains that, “Teaching robots to understand human nonverbal cues and signals could make them safer and more efficient at working with people.”
MIT researchers have developed a system that allows people to use a combination of brain waves and muscle signals to stop and redirect a robot, writes John Biggs for TechCrunch. “The machine adapts to you, and not the other way around,” explains graduate student Joseph DelPreto.
MIT researchers have developed a system that “lets a person control a robotic arm with brainwaves and subtle hand gestures,” reports Jesus Diaz for Co.Design. According to Prof. Daniela Rus, the goal is “to develop robotic systems that are a more natural and intuitive extension of us.”
Empatica, a startup co-founded by Prof. Rosalind Picard, is hoping to use the same data gathered by its wearable device Embrace, which “analyzes physiological signals to detect seizures,” to help people manage stress, reports Rina Raphael of Fast Company. “We’re developing the applications that can help people understand stress,” says Picard, “the technology is there.”
NECN’s Brian Shactman interviews MIT alumnus Sam Shames for this “Tech Check” segment about the Embr Wave, a wristband developed by Shames and others to help the wearer feel cooler or warmer. “There’s actually a piece of technology to make it easier for all of us to get along when it comes to temperature,” declares Schactman.
In this video, Mashable spotlights AlterEgo, a wearable device that allows for silent communication between human and machine. The video notes that graduate student Arnav Kapur’s goal in developing the device was to, “create something to let people communicate silently and without being obtrusive to each other.”
Writing in The Boston Globe, technology reporter Hiawatha Bray examines a bracelet designed by three MIT alumni that “functions like a personal thermostat, cooling you off when you’re hot or warming you up when it’s chilly.” Called Embr Wave, it offers a “sudden surge of heat or cold that makes us feel better, even though our core temperature has hardly changed,” Bray explains.
Empatica, a startup founded by Prof. Rosalind Picard, makes a wearable sensor that detects a person’s seizures, as well as certain physiological factors. Picard discussed the potential benefits of her work with Co.Design’s Katherine Schwab: “[W]hen you get personalized, long-term data from a watch or a phone, we can start to help an individual learn [their] patterns, not on average for some group you may be an outlier in.”
WCVB reporter Mike Wankum visits Embr Labs, an MIT spinoff that has developed a wristband that can make wearers feel warmer or colder. Wankum explains that after a few minutes of wearing the wristband, “you feel more comfortable. Much like holding a warm cup of coffee to take the chill off a winter morning.”
This CNN video highlights tattoo ink developed by Media Lab researchers that changes colors when it detects changes in biochemistry. The researchers hope the technology could eventually be used to, “help people better monitor their health.”
WGBH’s Adam Reilly visits MIT spinout Embr Labs, where researchers have developed a wristband that helps the wearer feel warmer or cooler, and could also help reduce energy consumption. "Even if we could help people use their AC unit and their heating just a fraction of a degree less, the benefits for the world could be tremendous,” explains co-founder and MIT graduate David Cohen-Tanugi.
USA Today reporter Sydney C. Greene highlights a new piece of wearable technology developed by MIT researchers that was designed to help prevent sexual assault. Greene explains that the researchers developed a “sticker that integrates with clothing to respond to signs of assault such as forced disrobing.”