A: If you are a Media Lab Sponsor, then please access the reasonably well maintained, up-to-date sponsor website pages . Sponsors also have access to all our pre-publication work and should feel free to contact us directly for any details, software, etc.

A: First, get into MIT. Most of our students come from MIT's Program in Media Arts and Sciences, while others have come from Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, although we are open to students from any department. We occasionally accept students from non-technical backgrounds (e.g., design/psychology/cognitive science) as long as you are willing to learn to create and build new things (hack software or hardware). (We do not just "do studies" or "mock-up designs.") You have to apply separately to each department at MIT in which you might want to work. MIT's Admissions information can guide you to the information for each department.

While there are no special advantages for any group, we especially encourage female and minority applicants to apply. We also encourage anyone who "doesn't fit" in the usual places. We are always looking for ways to expand the diverse viewpoints in our group, which gives us strength in thinking outside the box. If you have a tendency to underestimate your abilities, please set aside your doubt and take the risk to apply. If there is a hardship paying the application fee let us know. Note that students have traditionally received full funding once they are admitted (provided they remain in good academic standing and graduate in a reasonable amount of time), so cost of attending MIT should not be a concern.

What advice can we give to improve your chances to get in? The best thing to do is to first learn about our latest research projects before you write your statement of objectives. You can download publications, and contact the students working on the projects that interest you most. Because of so many talented applicants, often the admission decisions come down to choosing those whose passions are most closely aligned with the group's current research goals. Learn what interests us and see if it is a good fit to your interests. Of course you can also feel free to suggest things you think we should be interested in.

Professor Picard rarely accepts more than 1-2 new students a year and some years accepts none. It is wise to target several areas of interest in your admissions application, to increase your chances of getting into MIT, and then once you are at MIT or in the Media Lab, you will find there are few walls. Thus, repeat the process above for 2 or 3 groups that interest you.

Picard personally goes through the applications to Media Arts and Sciences that mention Affective Computing or Autism, so list these if you want to consider working with this group. If you make the "short-list" of admits, then Picard will probably follow up with you by phone or by arranging a face-to-face meeting before admissions decisions are made.

We wish we had the resources to engage in email dialogue or otherwise interact with all applicants, their families, and others who email us on your behalf. Please do not expect personal responses to all your mails; Prof. Picard gets hundreds of mails a day and has time to respond to only a small handful.

Each year many outstanding applicants are turned away, despite that they have enormous talent and we would love to have them join the lab. A rejection does not imply anything negative about your talent or ability. Sometimes people try repeatedly and get in on a 2nd or 3rd attempt. The staff in the office of the Program in Media Arts and Sciences can be of help if you have questions about the process or the status of your application. Faculty are not allowed to respond to individual queries about the status of an application, or why a student was or was not admitted. You will not help your application by mailing the faculty with such inquiries.

Note that sometimes Prof. Picard serves on student thesis committees outside of MIT as well as outside the USA, so it may be possible to collaborate even if you wind up at another school.

A: Unfortunately with new US Immigration and MIT regulations, we are ALWAYS REQUIRED to pay money for international visiting students, and some other categories of visitor, even if they bring their own money. We get an enormous number of these requests and apologize that we do not have the resources to respond personally to all of them.

A: Unfortunately, almost never. Our group receives 30 or so unsolicited postdoc requests a year and accepts about one person every 3-5 years. We apologize that we do not have the resources to personally respond to all these requests.

A: These sensors were never for sale. Due to our research needs and an overwhelming number of requests over the years we developed the iCalm sensor, an improvement over the galvactivator and the Handwave, which then became spun out into a commercial product, the Q Sensor. The Q Sensor is now made and sold by Affectiva and measures electrodermal activity as skin conductance (same as the galvanic skin response of the old galvactivator) and also measures activity and temperature on the surface of the skin.

A: We have a data share page that contains links to data sets. This page includes instructions for proper citations for the work.

A: The primary work involved in constructing a Handwave device is in constructing a printed circuit board (PCB). A set of design files for the Handwave device may be downloaded and unzipped. This contains OrCad design files, a bill of materials, schematic, Gerber files, firmware source code, sample drivers, and design files for a programming jib. These files are most useful to those who are experienced computer or electrical engineers and are offered without any support or warranty.
Further information can be found in the publications we wrote: The HandWave Bluetooth Skin Conductance Sensor, HandWave: Design and Manufacture of a Wearable Wireless Skin Conductance Sensor and Housing and The HandWave User's Guide.

A: Data can be read by reading from a serial port profile implemented by the Handwave device. More information can be found in the HandWave User's Guide.

A: There is no simple answer to this; it is an active research question that depends on many factors. "Best" is always with respect to some criteria: recognition accuracy, comfort and ease of sensing in a given situation, respect for user's privacy concerns, and more. For several examples, look at our publications.

A: Research at the MIT Media Lab is funded by sponsoring corporations, governments, and generous individuals. Our group shares ideas and prototypes with these companies and they take some of the ideas into development. Sometimes spin-out companies develop our ideas. Full disclosure: Prof. Picard and Dr. Rana el Kaliouby have co-founded a spin-out company, Affectiva, that is now making sensors and cloud-based software for emotion measurement and communication, both for clinical research, and for market research. Picard serves as Chief Scientist and Chairman of Affectiva, while el Kaliouby serves as Chief Technology Officer and Board Member.

A: The MIT Media Lab is not in the business of making products, but we have been told that we inspired or otherwise influenced products, such as Hasbro/iRobot's My Real Baby. (The development effort for this product was led by Jonathan Klein, an alumnus of our group.) Picard has worked with companies (outside MIT) on product conception and design and, as mentioned above, has a spin-out company that is now producing products for affect analysis and communication.

A: All press/interview/media requests are handled by the Media Lab Press Office. Please contact Alexandra Kahn via the Lab's Contact Us form or call her at 617-253-0365, and her office will handle it from there.

A: We do not develop products, only research prototypes. Affectiva's Q Sensor is now being used by many researchers for stress analysis, and this came out of a lab prototype built by the Affective Computing group at MIT.

A: The sensors we used (now over ten years ago!) in our original Prototype Sensing System are available from:

Thought Technology Ltd.
2180 Belgrave Ave.
Montreal Quebec, Canada H4A 2L8
Tel: (514) 489-8251
Fax: (514) 489-8255

We prefer not to give out pricing or technical information on these; please contact the manufacturer.