Augmented and virtual reality

Collage of four images of a hand wearing a white, fabric-based glove with black fingertips and haptics and sensors sewn in. Two use cases shown include manipulating a robotic arm and playing a piano.

Smart glove teaches new physical skills

Adaptive smart glove from MIT CSAIL researchers can send tactile feedback to teach users new skills, guide robots with more precise manipulation, and help train surgeons and pilots.

February 20, 2024

Five strips show different visual projects: collage of people and sea-related scenes; mesoamerican pyramid next to a pool of water, illustration of a snow leopard; photo of 30 or so people wearing red outfits, digging in a trench; a park bench next to some trees

Co-creating climate futures with real-time data and spatial storytelling

Five multimedia projects communicating climate futures selected for 2023 WORLDING program, online and at MIT.

January 8, 2024

3 rows show how a cat’s tail is animated in 3 ways. The rows are labeled, from top to bottom: Dirichlet, Weighted TV, and ARAP. The rows show very similar versions of the cat’s tail enclosed in polygonal mesh marking animation points.

A flexible solution to help artists improve animation

This new method draws on 200-year-old geometric foundations to give artists control over the appearance of animated characters.

December 20, 2023

A housplant inside a wooden pot with "good vibes only" on it is seen both in the background and in a cellphone screen that is imaging the scene. On the cellphone version of the scene, overlaid text says "Plant: Kalanchoe. Last watered: 09/06/22, Next watering: 09/19/22, with a button that says "Water now" underneath

A new way to integrate data with physical objects

StructCode, developed by MIT CSAIL researchers, encodes machine-readable data in laser-cut objects by modifying their fabrication features.

October 18, 2023

A collage of six photos showing groups of people at MIT.nano family day.

MIT.nano Family Day invites those at home to come to work

Staff share nano experience — and ice cream — with their families.

September 18, 2023

4 cartoony people, on the four corners, with a video game controller in their hand. A cloud in the middle shows their avatars fighting.

A system to keep cloud-based gamers in sync

By synchronizing media streams transmitted from the cloud to two devices, researchers could improve cloud gaming and AR/VR applications.

August 31, 2023

Four photos in a grid. Upper left: A hand holds a bottle and another hand holds a smartphone in front of it, with the screen revealing a black and white square that is an invisible QR code. Upper right: The same phone sees the same QR code in a wristband worn on an arm being scanned by the phone. Lower left: The wristband is shown alone. Lower right: The same wristband reveals several black and white QR codes.

Invisible tagging system enhances 3D object tracking

Developed by MIT researchers, BrightMarkers are invisible fluorescent tags embedded in physical objects to enhance motion tracking, virtual reality, and object detection.

August 15, 2023

Mengying Cathy Fang stands at a workbench using a blue calligraphy plotter in a lab space

Communicating across time

TeleAbsence, a project from the MIT Media Lab, probes and imitates the way humans process feelings of belonging, love, and loss.

August 11, 2023

A blue squiggle-like DNA graphic points down in the center emitting light downwards. Two red DNA graphics are pointed up beside it. A structured array composed of triangular rods lie flat on dark gray surface, while the top rows of the arrays contain pieces resembling red pills.

Arrays of quantum rods could enhance TVs or virtual reality devices

MIT engineers developed a new way to create these arrays, by scaffolding quantum rods onto patterned DNA.

August 11, 2023

Against an orange background, a crowd of actors wearing makeup and similar camouflage outfits surrounds a circular green pool. A bald man in center is in pain and everyone is turned toward him. A giant rusty machine is on the right.

Q&A: A high-tech take on Wagner’s “Parsifal” opera

Director and MIT Professor Jay Scheib’s production, at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany, features an apocalyptic theme and augmented reality headsets for the audience.

August 3, 2023

Five panelists seated on stage in discussion.

Bringing the social and ethical responsibilities of computing to the forefront

The inaugural SERC Symposium convened experts from multiple disciplines to explore the challenges and opportunities that arise with the broad applicability of computing in many aspects of society.

June 8, 2023

20 people pose for a group photo in front of large doors and sign reading "MIT Building W31"

First-of-its-kind Indigenous immersive incubator gathers on MIT campus

Over the course of four days, Indigenous delegates collaborated on immersive technology with MIT community members.

May 19, 2023

The Green Mosque is against a black background, and is light blue and beige. It has a blue dome in the center, and stylized archways.

Architectural heritage like you haven’t seen it before

“Ways of Seeing” project documents endangered Afghan heritage sites through digital imaging, virtual reality, and hand-drawn professional renderings.

May 19, 2023

Five objects appear on a whitish background: A blue kettlebell with some microchip components, a silver ringlike object with wires, a roll of corrugated white plastic, a white glove with wires on it, and an off-white corrugated piece of plastic.

Toward more flexible and rapid prototyping of electronic devices

FlexBoard is a flexible breadboard that enables rapid prototyping of objects with interactive sensors, actuators, and displays on curved and deformable surfaces.

May 18, 2023

Three examples of people posing with a virtual Tim the BeaVR outside an MIT building. In the first, Tim appears giant-sized; in the second, human-sized; and in the third, palm-sized

Say hello to Tim the BeaVR

MIT student creates Tim the Beaver in virtual reality using the MIT.nano Immersion Lab.