The MIT.nano Immersion Lab, MIT's groundbreaking open-access facility for artificial intelligence-enhanced augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) applications, is now welcoming MIT students, faculty, researchers, and external users to explore the next frontier of digital interaction.
This state-of-the-art facility occupies a two-story space on the third floor of MIT.nano, designed like a black-box theater to foster innovation. The Immersion Lab integrates sophisticated AI systems with individual equipment and platforms, featuring powerful data processing capabilities that enable revolutionary approaches to education and research. These include creating and experiencing AI-driven immersive environments, advanced human motion capture using machine learning algorithms, 3D scanning for digital asset creation, 360-degree spatial modeling, interactive computational visualization, and real-time interfacing between physical and digital worlds.
"By providing the MIT community with this exceptional array of AI-powered tools, we're unleashing their boundless curiosity and experimental spirit to develop groundbreaking paradigms and explore new intellectual horizons," explains Vladimir Bulović, the founding faculty director of MIT.nano and the Fariborz Maseeh Chair in Emerging Technology. "I'm particularly excited to witness the collaborative innovations that will emerge when students, faculty, and researchers from diverse disciplines begin connecting and experimenting within the Immersion Lab's virtual domains."
A primary objective of the laboratory is facilitating AI-enhanced data exploration, enabling scientists and engineers to analyze and visualize their research at human scale through large, multidimensional displays that incorporate visual, haptic, and auditory elements. "This facility addresses a critical need for individuals and programs seeking innovative methods to harness, shape, present, and interact with data using artificial intelligence and immersive technologies," notes Brian W. Anthony, the associate director of MIT.nano and faculty lead for the Immersion Lab.
As MIT.nano generates massive datasets through typical scientific measurement workflows, the Immersion Lab will accelerate the data-centric research of MIT.nano scientists and others who utilize the space, driving advancements in science, engineering, art, entertainment, and education through AI-powered analysis and visualization.
AI-Enhanced Tools and Capabilities
According to Anthony, the Immersion Lab not only brings together various cutting-edge hardware and software tools but functions as a comprehensive research instrument in its own right. The two-story cube, measuring approximately 28 feet on each side, features an embedded OptiTrack system that enables precision motion capture through real-time active or passive 3D object tracking, complemented by full-body motion analysis software enhanced by machine learning algorithms.
Supplementing these integrated systems are standalone instruments designed to study data, analyze and model the physical world, and generate new immersive content, including:
Like MIT.nano's fabrication and characterization facilities, the Immersion Lab welcomes researchers from any MIT department, laboratory, or center, with expert research staff available to assist users in leveraging these AI-powered technologies.
Support for AI Research, Courses, and Seminars
Anthony notes that the Immersion Lab is already facilitating cross-disciplinary AI research at MIT, collaborating with multiple MIT groups for diverse applications—from quantitative geometry measurements of physical prototypes for advanced manufacturing to AI-powered motion analysis of humans for health and wellness, creation of animated characters for arts and theater production, virtual tours of physical spaces, and visualization of fluid and heat flow for architectural design.
The MIT.nano Immersion Lab Gaming Program represents a four-year research collaboration between MIT.nano and video game development company NCSOFT, aiming to revolutionize human interaction through AI and gaming technology innovations. During the program's initial two calls-for-proposals in 2019 and 2020, 12 projects from five different departments received $1.5M in combined research funding. The collaborative proposal selection process by MIT.nano and NCSOFT ensures that awarded projects develop industrially significant advancements while exposing MIT researchers to technical practitioners at NCSOFT.
The Immersion Lab also partners with the Clinical Research Center (CRC) at the MIT Institute for Medical Engineering and Science to create a human-centric environment for studying health and wellness using AI technologies. Through this collaboration, the CRC provides sensors, equipment, and expertise to capture physiological measurements of the human body while immersed in the physical or virtual realms of the Immersion Lab.
Undergraduate students can access the Immersion Lab through sponsored Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) projects. Recent UROP work includes exploring jumping as a novel form of locomotion in AI-enhanced virtual reality and analyzing human muscle lines using motion capture software powered by machine learning. Beginning with MIT's 2021 Independent Activities Period, the Immersion Lab will also offer workshops, short courses, and for-credit classes within the MIT curriculum.
Members of the MIT community and general public can discover more about the various AI application areas supported by the Immersion Lab through a new seminar series, Immersed, launching in February. This monthly event will feature presentations by experts in current work, highlighting future goals to be pursued with immersive technologies and artificial intelligence. Scheduled topics include motion in sports, photogrammetry applications, rehabilitation and prosthetics, and music/performing arts.
AI-Enhanced Teaching and Learning Methodologies
Virtual reality enhanced by artificial intelligence enables instructors to transport students to environments that are difficult to access geographically or at scale. Innovative approaches to integrating gaming language into education allow students to discover concepts independently through AI-guided experiences.
As a recent example, William Oliver, associate professor in electrical engineering and computer science, is developing Qubit Arcade to teach fundamental principles of quantum computing through an AI-powered virtual reality demonstration. Users can create Bloch spheres, control qubit states, measure results, and compose quantum circuits in an intuitive 3D representation featuring virtualized quantum gates.
IMES Director Elazer Edelman, the Edward J. Poitras Professor in Medical Engineering and Science, utilizes the Immersion Lab as an AI-enhanced teaching tool for interacting with 3D models of the heart. With the Lab's 3D and 4D visualization capabilities, Edelman and his students can examine in detail the evolution of congenital heart failure models—something previously only possible when encountering such cases in cadavers.
"Software engineers understand digital concept implementation. Artists comprehend light-material interactions and how to direct attention through contrast and composition. Musicians and composers grasp human auditory responses. Dancers and animators master human motion. Teachers excel at explaining concepts and challenging students. Hardware engineers manipulate materials to create new physical functionalities. All these disciplines contribute valuable perspectives to the AI-enhanced challenges we're addressing in the Immersion Lab," explains Anthony.
A faculty advisory board has been established to help the MIT.nano Immersion Lab identify opportunities enabled by current tools and those that should be explored with additional AI-powered software and hardware capabilities. The lab's advisory board currently includes seven MIT faculty members from six departments. This broad faculty engagement ensures that the Immersion Lab undertakes projects across numerous disciplines and launches new directions for cross-disciplinary discoveries powered by artificial intelligence.
Visit nanousers.mit.edu/immersion-lab to learn more about this revolutionary AI research facility.
