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Human augmentation is a field of research that aims to enhance the human experience through medicine or technology. The focus is on creating cognitive and physical improvements by expanding the current human senses and even creating entirely new abilities.
Team HART fundamentally believes in making the world more inclusive by replacing limitations with technological possibilities. We envision a future where the constraints of human biology dissolve, and new ways of perceiving the world arise by giving people freedom of experience.
At the heart of our research lies the development of a wearable haptic sleeve embedded with an array of 4 vibration motors. By mapping facial expression into vibrational patterns on the skin, it aims to enable users to “feel” other peoples facial expressions on their forearm. This offers a novel form of communication, particularly useful in situations where visual channels are limited or unavailable.
This approach opens the door to a broad range of applications aimed at augmenting human perception and enhancing accessibility. The flexibility of haptic communication allows for creative integrations with artificial intelligence, advanced electronic systems, and knowledge of the human nervous system to build new channels of interaction between people and their environments.
HART is also exploring the integration of electroencephalogram (EEG) technology to capture real-time brain activity and emotional states. Our goal is to develop a brain computer interface (BCI) that can provide responsive feedback based on neural activity. A key use case is supporting caregivers of patients with limited communicative abilities, helping them better understand the emotional or cognitive states of those they care for.
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Throughout history, technological and cultural progress has freed up the human experience. We now have information at our fingertips and aim to be free to express ourselves the way we want.
However, the way in which we experience the world is still limited by the sensory receptors given to us at birth.
HART’s first long-term goal is to raise awareness of the subject of human augmentation and bring it into the domain of public conversation. In the past, the main focus of human augmentation has been on creating medicine or surgically installing implants to enhance human abilities. Lately, however, augmented reality and interactive technologies have also enabled more non-invasive ways to enhance human capabilities. Thus, to keep up with the rate of development of the field, it is important to ensure an understanding of its implications for the general public as it will directly impact society’s well-being.
Our second long-term goal is tech-related: developing a platform that shows the possibility of human augmentation with some examples of applications while allowing others to build their own. Imagine a platform like the App Store, but instead of apps, anyone can download new senses for their haptic devices.
Human augmentation is all about increasing our natural abilities and we are already experiencing this due to smartwatches and smartphones.
Have you ever thought about the fact that you can talk to someone living on the other side of the earth?
In general, we identify three stages of human augmentation: substitution, addition, and extension. Substitutional human augmentation entails enhancing impaired persons to regain their missing abilities; two examples are a prosthetic arm and an insulin pump.
In the addition stage, the focus lies on expanding the human abilities that we are born with. So, prosthetically creating the eleventh finger or enabling 360-degree vision are both forms of additional human augmentation.
In the extension stage, you can let your imagination run wild; extension is not just strengthening human abilities but creating entirely new ones. Think about the ability to perceive your internal health statistics in a similar way you experience how hungry you are. Other examples that fall into the extension category are extending life or sensing the electromagnetic field around us.