Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2019 / Cataloged from the official PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 38-40). / To circumvent the limitations of spectrally multiplexing sensors, fluorescent sensors are clustered by type and spatially separated in the cytoplasm to avoid cross-talk. Each sensor is fused to an orthogonal viral capsid protein that binds to a long, repetitive strand of its corresponding RNA sequence. All sensors fluoresce green and are indistinguishable during recording but are identified with post-hoc antibody or FISH staining for each sensor-specific puncta. This spatial multiplexing strategy will allow for easier scaling of the number of fluorescent reporters of physiological activity. / by Shannon L. Johnson. / S.M. / S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2018 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 95-99). / Science concepts lie at the heart of our everyday experiences, yet people feel disconnected from science because of the abstract way it is taught in schools. We wanted people to learn science concepts in the real world in playful ways, and used Mixed Reality (MR) to allow people to visualize and play with science concepts in the real world. We focused on Newtonian physics as our first science concept in Wonderland because Newtonian physics is commonly experienced by people in their everyday lives, especially in playful contexts, e.g., when they throw a ball. We created simple Newtonian physics tools, which served as building blocks of Newtonian physics systems to allow learners to build their own Newtonian physics models and puzzles for constructionist learning. We include different types of custom visualizations, e.g., graphs, velocity and acceleration vectors, etc, to allow the users to visualize the underlying physics of objects in scientifically accurate, yet intuitive ways. Our rewinding interface also enables users to play, pause, rewind, replay, speed up and slow down physics so that users can learn from repeated physics experimentation. We created two versions of Wonderland: a Hololens version for an immersive head-worn MR experience, and an ARKit version for a more widely accessible MR experience on iOS devices. Our experiments show that users enjoy solving Newtonian physics puzzles in Wonderland, and find the visuals and simulations helpful in understanding Newtonian physics concepts. We aim to further develop and deploy Wonderland to promote science learning and exploration in the real world. / by Mina Khan. / S.M. / S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, September, 2020 / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 89-102). / To build effective HCI interventions on cognitive processes, we must build off of updated and inclusive cognitive models. Recent research in psychology distinguishes levels of consciousness into a tripartite model - conscious, unconscious, and meta-conscious. HCI technologies largely focus on the conscious pathway for computer-to-human interaction, requiring explicit user attention and action. In contrast, the other two pathways provide opportunities to create new interfaces that can alter emotion, cognition, and behavior without demands on attentional resources. In this thesis, we present a framework for creating technological interfaces that engage different cognitive processes, such as emotions. These direct interfaces connect to cognitive processes that are in our perception but outside our conscious control. Our goal is to provide a finer categorization of cognitive processes that can help classify HCI research related to activating non-conscious cognitive pathways. We present the design of two wearable devices, MoveU and Frisson that highlight the modulation of cognitive processes through body-based input. The contribution of this thesis is twofold: first, the tools developed in this work provide a platform for researchers to experiment by engineering cognitive processes. This could allow researchers to evaluate the causation rather than correlations in the manifestations of cognitive processes and ask new questions about links between our physiology and psychology. Second, the framework provides researchers and designers a new design space and highlights that awareness of consciousness levels can be a valuable design element and can help to expand the range of computer-to-human interface devices we build. / by Abhinandan Jain. / S.M. / S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 99-102). / Powered ankle prostheses have been proven to improve the walking economy of transtibial amputees although these powered systems are usually much heavier in weight than conventional prostheses. All commercial powered ankle prostheses that are currently available can only perform one-degree-of-freedom motion in a limited range. However, the human ankle can perform both frontal and sagittal plane motions. Studies have shown that the frontal plane motion during ambulation is associated with balancing. As more advanced neural interfaces have become available for amputees, it is possible to fully recover ankle function by combining neural signals and a robotic ankle. Accordingly, there is a need for a powered ankle prosthesis that can have active control on not only plantarflexion and dorsiflexion but also eversion and inversion. The objective of this thesis is to design and evaluate a two-degree-of-freedom powered ankle-foot prosthesis that is untethered and can support an average size human for level-ground walking with full power. At present, a system with such capabilities only exists as tethered. The prosthesis presented in this thesis is a second-iteration design based on its predecessor. The new design features a larger joint range of motion, a more robust transmission, and a more powerful battery module. Benchtop tests and walking trials were conducted to evaluate the system. The results demonstrate system characteristics and dynamics and the ability to support body weight in level-ground walking. / by Tsung-Han Hsieh. / S.M. / S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 146-150). / Woodstein is a software agent that works with a user's web browser to explain and help diagnose problems in web processes, such as purchases. It enables the user to inspect data items in ordinary web pages, revealing the processes that created them. It provides an integrated view of the processes and data associated with a user's actions at a web site, and retrieves related information on the same web site, or even on different web sites. When the user inspects data that looks incorrect, Woodstein helps manage hypotheses about causally related data and processes that look incorrect and provides guidance in the process of elimination to isolate the unsuccessful process or wrong data. / by Earl Joseph Wagner. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, leaves 248-253). / In this work, a system for recognizing activities in the home setting that uses a set of small and simple state-change sensors, machine learning algorithms, and electronic experience sampling is introduced. The sensors are designed to be "tape on and forget" devices that can be quickly and ubiquitously installed in home environments. The proposed sensing system presents an alternative to sensors that are sometimes perceived as invasive, such as cameras and microphones. Since temporal information is an important component of activities, a new algorithm for recognizing activities that extends the naive Bayes classifier to incorporate low-order temporal relationships was created. Unlike prior work, the system was deployed in multiple residential environments with non-researcher occupants. Preliminary results show that it is possible to recognize activities of interest to medical professionals such as toileting, bathing, and grooming with detection accuracies ranging from 25% to 89% depending on the evaluation criteria used. Although these preliminary results were based on small datasets collected over a two-week period of time, techniques have been developed that could be applied in future studies and at special facilities to study human behavior such as the MIT Placelab. The system can be easily retrofitted in existing home environments with no major modifications or damage and can be used to enable IT and health researchers to study behavior in the home. Activity recognition is increasingly applied not only in home-based proactive and preventive healthcare applications, but also in learning environments, security systems, and a variety of human-computer interfaces. / by Randy Joseph Rockinson. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2003. / Pages 98 and 99 blank. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-81). / This work builds an infrastructure called Location Linked Information that offers a means to associate digital information with public, physical places. This connection creates a hybrid virtual/physical space, called glean space, that is owned, managed, and rated by the public, for the benefit of the populace. Initially embodied by an interactive, dynamic map viewed on a handheld computer, the system provides two functions for its urban users: 1) the retrieval of information about their surroundings, and 2) the optional annotation of location for communal benefit. Having the ability to link physical location with arbitrary information is an essential function to building immersive information environments and the smart city. Public computing systems such as Location Linked Information will enhance the urban experience, just as access to transportation dramatically altered the sensation and form of the city. / by Matthew William David Mankins. / S.M.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2012. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-135). / Robotic vehicles walk on legs, roll on wheels, are pulled by tracks, pushed by propellers, lifted by wings, and steered by rudders. All of these systems share the common character of momentum transport across their surfaces. These existing approaches rely on bulk response among the fluids and solids. They are often not finely controllable and complex approaches suffer from manufacturing and practical operational challenges. In contrast I present a study of a dynamic, programmable interface between the surface and its surrounding fluids. This research explores a synthetic hydrodynamic regime, using a programmable surface to dynamically alter the flow around an object. Recent advances in distributed computing and communications, actuator integration and batch fabrication, make it feasible to create intelligent active surfaces, with significant implications for improving energy efficiency, recovering energy, introducing novel form factors and control laws, and reducing noise signatures. My approach applies ideas from programmable matter to surfaces rather than volumes. The project is based on covering surfaces with large arrays of small cells that can each compute, communicate, and generate shear or normal forces. The basic element is a cell that can be joined in arrays to tile a surface, each containing a processor, connections for power and communications, and means to control the local wall velocity The cell size is determined by the characteristic length scale of the flow field ranging from millimeters to centimeters to match the desired motion and fluidic system. Because boundary layer effects are significant across fluid states from aerodynamics to hydrodynamics to rheology, the possible implications of active control of the boundary layer are correspondingly far reaching, with applications from transportation to energy generation to building air handling. This thesis presents a feasibility study, evaluating current manufacturing, processing, materials, and technologies capabilities to realize programmable surfaces. / by Amy Sun. / Ph.D.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2012. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-81). / The purpose of this thesis is to present the design and evaluation of a new type of socially assistive robot, one that can interact with people and collect various types of sensory input while being small enough to hold in one's arms. This project is a completely new revision of the Huggable project created by Dan Stiehl and Cynthia Breazeal, which features a new mechanical design, a revamped electronics structure, and a polished control system based off of its sister project, DragonBot (developed by Adam Setapen). This thesis describes the process of how this new design came to be, and provides extensive content on how it was designed, along with all major components that were included. An evaluation is also presented as a test run for the new Huggable, in the form of an online survey. The results, along with much of the work done with the initial prototype, showed that there is still much work to be done to be convincing as a robust research robot. Improvements are listed, as well as its future work with Boston Children's Hospital. This new design hopes to finally bring the Huggable project out into the field for actual use with people. / by Kristopher B. Dos Santos. / S.M.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [223]-238). / Kristinn Rúnar Thórisson. / Ph.D.