Zensei – Technology Prototype
Zensei is a collaboration with MIT Media Lab's Camera Culture Group to design and develop their embedded, multi-electrode bioimpedance sensing technology.
An implicit sensing system leverages biosensing, signal processing and machine learning to classify users by their body’s electrical properties. Zensei could allow many objects to recognise users; e.g. phones that unlock when held, cars that automatically adjust mirrors and seats, or power tools that restore user settings.
To demonstrate the concept of casual identification on everyday devices, we built a round smartphone case to house our sensor board. The case’s round shape invites unique grasping styles while simultaneously adding surface area for the painted-on electrodes. The Zensei sensor board is mounted within the case and communicates with the attached smartphone via Bluetooth for continuous classification.
Client: MIT Media Lab, Camera Culture Group
Technology & Research: Munehiko Sato, Rohan Puri (MIT Media Lab), Alex Owal (Google)
Design Engineering: Lukas Franciszkiewicz (while at Takram), Yosuke Ushigome
Technical Program Lead: Google ATAP
Associate Professor: Ramesh Raskar (MIT Media Lab)
Year: 2017
All rights reserved 2025 (c) Lukas Franciszkiewicz