The platform for emerging technology
It’s been speculated that in the very near future, we’ll be sharing virtual experiences with all of our senses engaged. The Internet of Senses Institute is the platform for the convergence of thought leadership around the discovery and exploration of this emerging technology. As screen-based interaction is replaced with digital, multisensory experiences, the institute will be there: gathering research and documenting the innovation and implementation of the technology that will propel this to reality. Simply put, there is not one part of your life that won’t be impacted.
A Not Too Distant Future
The Internet of Senses Institute is a centralized platform that brings together a community of experts, inventors, and enthusiasts who are passionate about emerging technologies and research connected to the five senses —hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch. Led by a team of technology enthusiasts, the institute is your connection to a more interconnected future. We’ll bring you news and relevant articles about ground-breaking research, forward-thinking startups, and established corporations that are paving the way with new products. Our goal is to build strong coalitions between corporate, startup, government, and academic partners ready to tackle future opportunities and challenges today. We hope you join our journey.
Centralized Platform
The Internet of Senses Institute envisions a time in the not-so-distant future when technology seamlessly enhances everything we experience through our senses – hearing, sight, smell, touch, and taste. This may sound years away, but in actuality, the foundations are being forged right now. The Institute is designed to facilitate that technological revolution. Specifically, we are for:
- Academics at the world’s most innovative institutions publishing cutting-edge technological research and large consulting corporations utilizing this technology for efficiency and future development
- Investors who are committing millions of dollars to this new technology and the entrepreneurs creating the next big thing
- The government innovators that fund, develop and deploy technologies of the future for their constituents’ safety and productivity
Transforming Interactions
As technology rapidly evolves, so does our experience with the world around us. The Internet of Senses Institute will transform the way we interact with everything via cognitive and highly capable networks. These innovations will bring us closer to experiencing the complexity of life without the external limitations.
First to Know
Through the institute’s centralized hub, you’ll be the first to know the latest reports, news, research, and industry updates about all things Internet of Senses and, with our unique, in-depth analyses, what it means for you. And through our highly capable network platform, we offer events featuring representatives of research institutions, governmental partners, corporate innovators, and the most promising entrepreneurs and investors.
Our Areas of Focus
We envision a future in which the world of human senses is fully digitized, physical and augmented realities are fused, and sense perceptions are collectively shared.
Hearing
We are fast approaching the new voice economy. The pervasive use of audio analytics, voice-to-text technology, and the rapidly expanding hearables market will change how and what we hear, forever.
Anticipated technologies:
- AI-powered apps that predict and respond to conversation patterns
- Filtering and customization of ambient noise in public and private environments
- Instant translation that adapts the culture and the emotion of the speaker in addition to the words used
- Voice-activated devices in every consumer product category
- Improved accessibility for individuals with hearing or speech difficulties
- Customization of the human voice
Applications include:
- Sales
- Defense and international relations
- Audio-based social networks
- Gaming and entertainment
- The smart home
- Music, podcasts, audiobooks
Sight
Smart headsets, glasses, and contact lenses will facilitate a new augmented reality. Features and apps that we currently associate with smartphones will soon be fully integrated into our visual field, allowing for novel ways of seeing both our physical and digital worlds.
Anticipated technologies:
- Transforming data—such as map routes, meeting notes, and social media profiles—into optics by speaking, gesturing, or thinking commands
- Virtual “trying on” of apparel, cosmetics, and other fashions
- Simulation of furniture, appliances, and consumer items within physical space
- Immersive 3D textbooks, manuals, and graphic novels
- Digital overlays used to guide intricate scientific, medical, or engineering procedures
- Holographic models that enable visualization of complex data sets
- “Beaming” into the office to collaborate with coworkers and colleagues
Applications include:
- Fashion
- Marketing and digital commerce
- Remote work
- Consumer electronics
- Education and vocational training
- Scientific research
- Architecture and industrial design
Smell
Advances in bioelectronics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning will soon lead us to the era of the electronic nose. Devices capable of recognizing, reacting to, and reproducing both real and simulated scents will captivate us with olfactory stimulation.
Anticipated technologies:
- Detection of dangerous and illegal materials
- Monitoring of breathing rates and assisted respiration
- Digitally enhanced food and drink
- Personalized scents paired with calls and texts and on-demand in the home
- Olfactive “white noise” used to neutralize unpleasant smells
- Artificially-produced pheromones designed to excite, awaken, or calm
- Pre-production aroma tests of comestibles
Applications include:
- Security and law enforcement
- Assisted living and home-based medical care
- Culinary arts, coffee roasting, wine-making, brewing
- Personal devices and home appliances
- Ride-share comfort and motorist safety
- Mental and behavioral health
- Food security
Taste
Due to breakthroughs in electrical and thermal stimulation of the tongue, we will soon have the ability to “hack” food and beverages. Advances in biomechanics will bring the advent of the smart tongue, an AI-powered sensor capable of “tasting” human-made and naturally occurring substances.
Anticipated technologies:
- Alteration or enhancement of flavors and textures
- “Eating” or “drinking” without consuming anything at all
- Digital detection of contaminants in the environment or within the body
Applications:
- Cooking and food preparation
- Fine dining and beverages
- Nutrition, dieting, and health
- Air and water quality
- Food safety
- Preventive medicine
Touch
The power of digital touch to reshape our physical and virtual realities will soon progress far beyond the limitations of devices like phones and tablets. The revolution will be wearable and innovations in haptics will transform how we interact with the world.
Anticipated technologies:
- The use of any surface as a virtual touchscreen or keyboard
- Manipulation of digital information hovering in the air
- Thermoelectricity from the human body harnessed to power electronic accessories
- Virtual sensations of warmth, airflow, and movement
Applications:
- Athletic training and recovery
- Animal welfare
- Palliative medical care
- Remote work
- Gaming and entertainment
MISSION
The Internet of Senses Institute is a nexus for all who seek to learn about and participate in the next technological revolution. We serve as an entrepreneurial community for startups and investors, a research hub for academics and thought leaders, a trend-spotting resource for forward-thinking corporations, and an information center for privacy advocates and policymakers.