Things That Think (TTT)

Things That Think is inventing the future of digitally augmented objects and environments. Toward this end, Things That Think researchers are developing sophisticated sensing and computational architectures for networks of everyday things; designing seamless interfaces that bridge the digital and physical worlds while meeting the human need for creative expression; and creating an understanding of context and affect that helps things "think" at a much deeper level. Things That Think projects under way at the Lab range from inventing the city car of the future to designing a prosthesis with the ability to help a person or machine read social-emotional cues—research that will create the technologies and tools to redefine the products and services of tomorrow.

The goal of the Things That Think (TTT) consortium is to invent the future of digitally augmented objects and environments. We bring a unique, boundary-breaking perspective to research, uniting leaders in science, engineering, design, and art. Grounded by extensive corporate sponsor interaction, our prototypes and demonstrations aim to inspire the products and services of tomorrow. We invite forward-thinking sponsor companies and organizations to join TTT in realizing this vision.

Things That Think began in 1995 with the goal of embedding computation into both the environment and everyday objects. Things That Think researchers are world-renowned pioneers in a range of important emerging technologies, such as sensor networks, ambient information displays, biometrics, video streaming, video indexing, and RFID technology. These projects, begun at the Media Lab, are now at the forefront of a global trend toward ubiquitous, pervasive, and invisible computing enterprises. Having achieved our original goal, we have embarked on new explorations of equally exciting research topics, including affective computing, organic networking of "smart things," intimate and tangible interfaces, and biomechatronics.

These fresh frontiers of research now need to address new questions:

(*) How do we design interactions and environments that are natural and enjoyable?
(*) How do we coordinate enormously complex systems of unreliable, sensate things possessing millions of data channels in ways that are elegant, efficient, and unobtrusive?
(*) What is the potential for augmented objects that have an understanding of context and affect, and that can interact with people at a much deeper level than their inanimate status implies?
(*) What are the "killer applications" of augmented objects and environments that will significantly impact and enrich our business and home lives?

Things That Think's vision has evolved to embrace things that utilize computational capacity to serve important human priorities such as facilitating creativity and productivity; taking control of individual health; improving safety and well-being; and enhancing interaction and learning. At the same time, we continue to innovate new devices and technologies that enable interaction on a deeper, human level. We must not fill our environment with computational things that disrupt, distract, or violate human aesthetic and ethical sensibilities. This new research goal of creating “smart things” that will be useful to human lifestyles encourages and challenges Things That Think’s strong technical core of researchers to address the quality of the human interactive experience.

To accomplish this goal, we are pursuing themes that include:
(*) sophisticated sensing and computational architectures that augment, animate, and coordinate networks of things;
(*) seamless interfaces that bridge digital, physical, and human needs for creative expression and design;
(*) an understanding of context and affect that makes things think at a much deeper level.