Human Computer Integration Lab

Computer Science Department, University of Chicago

This page highlights the impact of our lab's research beyond just paper citations and direct impact in the HCI community.

Live (TV/etc) press

• Pedro and Jun give a live demo at CNBC of the muscle stimulation wearables (here's a small video snippet (on Twitter) of that demo)
• BBC Click did a live piece about our our Wearable Microphone Jammer
• TV Show, Planète Techno talked about our Wearable Microphone Jammer
• Fox 32 Chicago talked about our Wearable Microphone Jammer
• TV Show, Voice of America (interview with Jun about HandMorph)
• TV Asahi in Japan covers our preemptive action work (film crew came to lab)
• Peter Joosten interviews Pedro about to the ACM Augmented Humans 2021 conference, on which Pedro was the general co-chair
• Interview with Pedro Lopes on using muscle stimulation for virtual reality by HPI-Digitalblog (filmed at UIST conference)
• Pedro's keynote at NODE'15 on Human Computer Integration

Press on our Touch and Fold work (CHI 2021, Honorable Mention Award)

• Full article about our Touch and Fold device from HacksterIO
• Full article about our Touch and Fold device from ElectronicsLab
• PRNewswire adds our device to the overview of SIGGRAPH21 demos to come
• Computer Graphics World adds our device to the highlights/preview of SIGGRAPH21

Press on our Electrical Stereo Smell work (CHI 2021)

• Full article about our stereo smell on IEEE Spektrum
• Full article about our stereo smell at Hackster.io
• Honorable mention award in the best experimental design of 2021 of Fast Company’s 2021 Innovation by Design Awards (see article with all winners too!)
• Full article (in japanese) by IT Media
• BYU radio interviews Jas on trigeminal stereo-smell!
• Full article our stereo smell at Digital Trends
• Full article our stereo smell at BoingBoing
• Full article our stereo smell at Tech Thirsty
• Article our stereo smell at HiTech Glitz
• Highlight by NewsPicks (japanese)

Press on our Trigeminal Temperature Illusions for VR (CHI Best Paper 2020)

• IEEE Spektrum full article about our Trigeminal Illusions
• Boing Boing article: Digital synesthesia: Tricking your brain into experiencing smell as temperature in virtual reality
• DigitalTrends article on our hot cold illusion
• Article by UploadVR
• Article by Shiropen / IT media (also known as Seamless, in JP)
• InterestingEngineering covers our device
• Yahoo Finance covers our device
• HackesterIO full article about out device
• LabE's full article about out device
• VRroom's article on our hot cold illusion
• Geekologie article on our hot cold illusion
• Selected by Virtual Reality Pulse (link)
• N-O-D-E discusses our project and Jas CHI2020 talk
• Software Focus covers our work
• Free News article
• MakeMagazine covers open hardware projects, including our smell device
• Lab digital covers our device
• Robert Mcgrath's writes an article on their blog discussing our work
• Future of Smell covers our paper
• XR beat covers our temperature via trigeminal work
• VRuse covers our temperature via trigeminal work
• WhattsNew covers our temperature via trigeminal work (in ES)
• VR Journal covers our temperature via trigeminal work (in RU)

Press on our HandMorph exoskeleton (UIST Best Paper 2020)

• Full article about Handmorph at Hackster.io
• Full article about Handmorph (Shiropen/ITMedia, japan)
• Interview with Jun and Pedro (UchicagoCS)
• Article by Futurity
• Article about Handmorph by CoolWearable.com
• Article about Handmorph by RobotEnthusiast Website
• Medium Article by Jun about HandMorph and his other projects
• Article about Handmorph by Robotic Gizmos

Press on our EMS-based authentication (work with Heather Zheng and Ben Zhao)

• Full article about our EMS-based authentication (Shiropen/ITMedia, japan)
• Article by University of Chicago PSD News
• Article by Biometric Update

Press on our privacy bracelet (CHI Honorable Mention 2020; work with Heather Zheng and Ben Zhao)

• New York Times piece about our jammer
• The Atlantic's interview with Mike Pondsmith (creator of Cyberpunk) mentions our wearable jammer
• Our jammer is a finalist in the 2020 Innovation By Design Awards, given out by Fast Company magazine. The project was one of the 8 finalists chosen in the Experimental category.
• Chicago Tribune's article
• Mashable article
• Engadget article
• The Times article
• Full article about our wearable jammer (Shiropen/ITMedia, japan)
• Slashdot article
• Hackaday article about our jammer
• Adafruit features our work on their blog
• Freethink article about our jammer
• hartford courant's article
• Futurism article
• Techgenyz article
• Ycombinator discussion
• Daily Mail's article
• Reddit discussion
• Slashdot article
• Times of India article
• Input mag article
• Ulyces article (In french)
• Ubergizmo article
• Newsbreak article
• Todo Noticias Article (in Argentinian Spanish)
• Web Razzi Article (in Turkish)
• Yanko Design Article
• IoT Report article
• Seattle TimesActivate This 'Bracelet of Silence,' and Alexa Can't Eavesdrop
• The Mirror UK: Alexa owners can stop her eavesdropping using this 'bracelet of silence'
• Yahoo Finance: Ultrasonic bracelet jams the microphones around you
• National Law Review: Privacy Fashion: Profit from the Surveillance State
• Yahoo News: Activate This 'Bracelet of Silence,' and Alexa Can't Eavesdrop
• Business Insider Spain: Crean una pulsera con ultrasonidos que anula los microfonos e impide que las tecnologicas te espien
• CNet France: Ce bracelet brouilleur empeche les enceintes connectees de vous ecouter
• Paris Match: Un <> pour empecher Siri et Alexa de vous ecouter
• CTV News: Tech with Todd, start at 6:10
• RFI Podcast (France): Bracelet of Silence
• Independent (Ireland): Listen up: Your life is too boring for Alexa to spy on you
• Techtudo (Brazil): Pulseira digital bloqueia microfones proximos e evita espionagem
• TJournal (Russia): Bracelet of silence: how a pair of scientists came up with a device for suppressing microphones of "smart" speakers
• Baltijas Balss (Latvia): As a couple of scientists came up with a device for suppressing microphones of "smart" speakers, "Anti-clocks" emit ultrasound that interferes with speech recognition
• UberGizmo: This Ultrasonic Bracelet Jams Microphones Around You
• Jezebel: I Thought Dystopic Fashion Would Be Cuter
• UChicago Magazine: A computer science expert on the data privacy crisis
• Termometro (Mexico): Crean pulsera con ultrasonidos que impide que las tecnologicas te espien
• TechGenyz: 'Bracelet of Silence': A device to jam smart speakers' ability to spy on conversations
• Uncrate: ALEXA & SIRI MICROPHONE JAMMING BRACELET
• Le Numeriques (France): Ce bracelet empeche les objets connectes et smartphones de vous ecouter
• Muy Interesante (Spain): Este 'brazalete del silencio' impide que Alexa te espie
• Welt (Germany): Dieses Armband verhindert, dass Alexa und Siri dich belauschen
• Sina Tech (China): Scientists Invent "Bracelet of Silence" that can disable surrounding microphones
• TechOrange (China): American University Invents "Anti-surveillance" Bracelet, Uses Ultrasonic Signals to Block Smart Speakers and Smartphones
• Unwire (Hong Kong): American Researchers Invent Anti-surveillance Bracelet; Uses Ultrasonic Signals to Disrupt Nearby Microphones
• Technews (Taiwan): American Researchers Invent Anti-surveillance Bracelet; Uses Ultrasonic Signals to Disrupt Nearby Microphones
• Tech Insane Youtube Channel (Hindi): Tech Insane Youtube Channel (Hindi)
• Week in Rap Youtube Channel: Week in Rap Youtube Channel
• Guardian piece on IoT security mentions our device
• Featured on UChicago News: Monday, February 17, 2020
• Featured on PSD Academics Newsletter (by PSD Dean Angela Olinto): February 28, 2020

Press on our haptic learning via muscle stimulation work

• Full article at Chicago Magazine on our work.

Press on our agency in haptics work

• CNBC full feature on our work
• Gizmodo (full press article about Preemptive Action)
• IEEE Spectrum (full press article about Preemptive Action)
• Boing Boing (article about Preemptive Action)
• Tech Xplore (full press article about Preemptive Action)
• Business Today article about our EMS work with agency
• Spektrum (German) article about our agency work
• SIGCHI Medium (article by Pedro Lopes about the research questions behind our two 2019 CHI papers)
• HiTecher (press article about Preemptive Action)
• Medical Gadget (press article about Preemptive Action)
• My24 online newspaper (article about Preemptive Action)
• MobiGeek (article about Preemptive Action)
• UChicago News (full article about agency in EMS, including our Cerebral Cortex and two 2019 CHI papers)
• UChicago CS (full article about agency in EMS, including our Cerebral Cortex and two 2019 CHI papers)
• Reddit Thread (no research can be complete without people on reddit discussing it!)

Press on our agency in haptics work

• UChicago PSD article about our EMS as authentication work (with Ben Zhao and Heather Zheng)

News articles about the lab as a whole

• We got the ACM CAREER award in 2021! (UChicago CS news article)
• We have 7 papers at CHI 2021! (UChicago CS news article)
• UChicago Magazine wrote a long feature about our lab, vision and research projects of the first few months
• UChicago Short list (alumni, parents, families, and friends) features a story about our lab
• UChicagoCS 5 awards at CHI 2020! (includes our best paper award and our honorable mention)
• UChicago PSD article about Ada Lovelace Week 2020

Interviews with us

• Interview with Pedro about his PhD Thesis Award from the University of Potsdam, Germany

Press on our new lab or Pedro joining UChicago

• Crain's article on Michael Franklin's plan for UChicago CS, includes interview with Pedro
• UChicago news article about CS Department, includes news about our new lab (and images of our Graduate class)
• UChicago CS article about Pedro joining
• Scientia Article about Lopes' lab

Academic classes, books, etc that show our work

• The book Perspectives on Wearable Enhanced Learning (WELL) (Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 I. Buchem et al.), mentions our work on EMS!

DIY/Maker Community using our projects

• These folks have made their own openEMSstim and use it in their research

Other assorted press articles

• Pedro interviewed by New York Times regarding Kseniia Palin's work on the astonishing typing speed seen on today's phone users
• Pedro represents UChicago at CNBC Evolve event in Chicago 2019
• Uchicago News (26th Sep 2019) on our demo at CNBC
• Uchicago News (26th July 2019) on our EMS for VR work
• Uchicago News (12th April 2019) on our workshops at MADD and lab space
• UChicago Admissions Tumblr video about our artwork



Press on older projects (during Pedro's PhD)

• Science et Vie Junior Magazine discusses VR Walls on article about "City of the future on 2050"
• TechXplore article on VR walls
• VR Fittness article about EMS in AR
• PC Mag article about EMS in VR
• BGR article about Impacto
• Microsoft Power User article about EMS in AR
• Road to VR article about Impacto
• Core77 Article about Metamaterial Mechanisms (led by Alexandra Ion, co-authored also by Pedro)
• Techspot article about VR walls
• The register article about haptic illusions, featuring Pedro on VR walls, Margaret Koehler, Jake Rubin (from HaptX), Sriram Subramanian and Jan Gugenheimer
• H+ magazine article about Pedro's CHI15 papers
• 3Dprint magazine article about Trussformer (led by Rob Kovacs, co-authored also by Pedro)
• El Diario article about Impacto
• Japanese Gizmodo article about VR Walls
• VICE article abotu VR walls
• realovirtual article about VR walls
• Inverse article about our VR walls
• Hindu Business discusses developments in VR using our work
• TweakTown article about Impacto
• Dezeen article about Metamaterial Mechanisms (led by Alexandra Ion, co-authored also by Pedro)
• Article by Creative Applications about Muscle Plotter
• Article by Creative Applications about Constructable (led by Stefanie Mueller, co-authored also by Pedro)
• PhysOrg article on Muscle Propelled Force Feedback
• Wired Magazine's article on Constructable (led by Stefanie Mueller, co-authored also y Pedro Lopes)
• Pedro demonstrates Ad Infinitum at Science Gallery in Dublin
• Digital Trends article about Ad Infinitum
• Article by the Irish Times about our artwork
• Post by Ars electronica about our work
• Article by Creative Applications about Ad Infinitum
• Article by Mental floss abotu our artwork