MIT EECS & CSAIL

Perceptual Engineering Lab

About the Lab

The Perceptual Engineering Lab is led by Assistant Professor Jas Brooks at MIT, jointly affiliated with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

We envision a future where people can adjust their senses as easily as they tweak their phone settings: reducing sweetness perception to discourage unhealthy eating, tweaking perceived temperature for comfort, or extending their sensory range to detect otherwise imperceptible hazards. Despite this potential, today's interfaces struggle to incorporate the "lower" senses (e.g., smell, taste, temperature, interoception) due to persistent challenges in power efficiency, miniaturization, and sensory selectivity. We address these barriers through perceptual engineering: the design of computational interfaces that sense and modulate human sensory perception. We build systems that deliver stimulation (e.g., thermal, chemical, electrical) paired with computational models that read physiological signals to decode and modify what the body perceives.

But perception doesn't only happen in the lab. We also study how the lower senses shape and support everyday experience (in health, aesthetics, and media), treating them as expressive and cognitive tools in their own right. These threads are mutually reinforcing: understanding how the senses operate in everyday life makes our engineered interfaces more meaningful, and advances in modulation open new questions about perception itself. Both draw on computer science, electrical engineering, neuroscience, and design toward a shared goal: giving people genuine, programmable agency over their own perception to help with their wellbeing.

Location

Ray and Maria Stata Center
32 Vassar St
Room 321
Cambridge, MA 02139

Interested in joining? →

Team

Full profiles

Principal Investigator

Postdoc

PhD Student

Master's Student

External Collaborator

News

All news

Aug 29, 2026

Dr. MacKenzie Harnett has been selected for the Rising Stars in Mechanical Engineering 2026 workshop at Stanford: congratulations, Mack! Read more

Aug 22, 2026

The Perceptual Engineering Lab wrapped up its first summer with a social walk through the Arnold Arboretum; welcome to the team, Riley, Gene, Sol, Tai, Mack, and Terry! (Plus, honored to have Suk swing in town!)

Jul 9, 2026

Kaylee Li (Univ. of Michigan CSE) visited to share her work on wearable and acoustic sensing for activity understanding.

Jul 6, 2026

Prof. Brooks featured on the MIT CSAIL Alliances Spotlight! Read more

Selected Publications

All publications

Bump chart showing how the top 10 most common scents in scratch-and-sniff books shift in rank across six age groups, from infancy (0–3) through adulthood (18+). Chocolate, mint, and strawberry dominate early childhood, while pine rises to the top rank in adulthood. Socially transgressive and complex scents such as gas, breath, grave, and foot appear only in the adolescence and adulthood categories.

How Scratch-and-Sniff Books Encode Smell Across Development

Jas Brooks, Natalia Kucirkova, Charles Spence

Multisensory Research — 2025

PDF DOI

@article{brooksHowScratchandSniffBooks2025,
  title = {How Scratch-and-Sniff Books Encode Smell Across Development},
  author = {Brooks, Jas and Kucirkova, Natalia and Spence, Charles},
  year = 2025,
  month = nov,
  journal = {Multisensory Research},
  volume = {38},
  number = {6-8},
  pages = {543--585},
  issn = {2213-4794, 2213-4808},
  doi = {10.1163/22134808-bja10176},
  copyright = {https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/}
}

Research figure showing a nose-worn device that uses Peltier elements to heat or cool airflow in sync with breathing. The main image shows the device worn under the nose with a close-up inset of the Peltier component. Two side panels show the contrasting effects: cooling makes breathing feel easy (paired with a crisp mountain environment), while heating makes breathing feel labored (paired with a smoky, hazy scene).

Augmented Breathing via Thermal Feedback in the Nose

Jas Brooks, Alex Mazursky, Janice Hixon, Pedro Lopes

ACM UIST — 2024

PDF DOI Video

@inproceedings{brooksAugmentedBreathingThermal2024,
  title = {Augmented Breathing via Thermal Feedback in the Nose},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 37th {{Annual ACM Symposium}} on {{User Interface Software}} and {{Technology}}},
  author = {Brooks, Jas and Mazursky, Alex and Hixon, Janice and Lopes, Pedro},
  year = 2024,
  month = oct,
  pages = {1--11},
  publisher = {ACM},
  address = {Pittsburgh, PA, USA},
  doi = {10.1145/3654777.3676438},
  isbn = {979-8-4007-0628-8},
  langid = {english}
}

Research figure showing a person wearing a VR headset and holding a blackberry up to their mouth, with a small tube attached near their lips. Illustrated arrows show taste retargeting: the blackberry maps to a lemon, the lemon to a strawberry, and the strawberry to a spider, depicting how the system alters taste perception.

Jury’s Best Demo Honorable Mention

Taste Retargeting via Chemical Taste Modulators

Jas Brooks, Noor Amin, Pedro Lopes

ACM UIST — 2023

PDF DOI Video Code

@inproceedings{brooksTasteRetargetingChemical2023a,
  title = {Taste Retargeting via Chemical Taste Modulators},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 36th {{Annual ACM Symposium}} on {{User Interface Software}} and {{Technology}}},
  author = {Brooks, Jas and Amin, Noor and Lopes, Pedro},
  year = 2023,
  month = oct,
  pages = {1--15},
  publisher = {ACM},
  address = {San Francisco, CA, USA},
  doi = {10.1145/3586183.3606818},
  isbn = {979-8-4007-0132-0},
  langid = {english}
}

Photo of a laser-cut cardboard prototype device with two cylindrical scent cartridges mounted in a flat base, alongside a separate star-shaped stand. Below the device, a strip of colorful scented washi tape is shown with annotations indicating play direction (left to right) and the use of non-scented washi tape to connect segments. The paper tape includes scratch-and-sniff stickers to prototype olfactory experiences, which are scratched by velcro in the cardboard cassette.

Sadakichi Award (Art & Olfaction 2024)

Smell & Paste: Low-Fidelity Prototyping for Olfactory Experiences

Jas Brooks, Pedro Lopes

ACM CHI — 2023

PDF DOI Video Code

@inproceedings{brooksSmellPasteLowFidelity2023,
  title = {Smell \& {{Paste}}: Low-Fidelity Prototyping for Olfactory Experiences},
  shorttitle = {Smell \& {{Paste}}},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2023 {{CHI Conference}} on {{Human Factors}} in {{Computing Systems}}},
  author = {Brooks, Jas and Lopes, Pedro},
  year = 2023,
  month = apr,
  pages = {1--16},
  publisher = {ACM},
  address = {Hamburg, Germany},
  doi = {10.1145/3544548.3580680},
  isbn = {978-1-4503-9421-5},
  langid = {english}
}

Research figure showing a person wearing a VR headset with a wearable patch on their forearm. Four circular insets illustrate chemical haptic sensations delivered via the patch: cooling (menthol), warming (capsaicin), tingling (sanshool), stinging (cinnamaldehyde), and numbing (lidocaine), each paired with a corresponding VR scene.

Chemical Haptics: Rendering Haptic Sensations via Topical Stimulants

Jasmine Lu, Ziwei Liu, Jas Brooks, Pedro Lopes

ACM UIST — 2021

PDF DOI Video Code

@inproceedings{luChemicalHapticsRendering2021,
  title = {Chemical Haptics: Rendering Haptic Sensations via Topical Stimulants},
  shorttitle = {Chemical {{Haptics}}},
  booktitle = {The 34th {{Annual ACM Symposium}} on {{User Interface Software}} and {{Technology}}},
  author = {Lu, Jasmine and Liu, Ziwei and Brooks, Jas and Lopes, Pedro},
  year = 2021,
  month = oct,
  pages = {239--257},
  publisher = {ACM},
  address = {Virtual Event},
  doi = {10.1145/3472749.3474747},
  isbn = {978-1-4503-8635-7},
  langid = {english}
}

Research figure showing a person with eyes closed wearing a small electronic device clipped to their nostril, with a lightning bolt icon indicating electrical stimulation. An arrow points from the device toward a stove in the background, indicating the rendered stereo-smell sensation.

Innovation by Design Honorable Mention

Stereo-Smell via Electrical Trigeminal Stimulation

Jas Brooks, Shan-Yuan Teng, Jingxuan Wen, Romain Nith, Jun Nishida, Pedro Lopes

ACM CHI — 2021

PDF DOI Video Code

@inproceedings{brooksStereoSmellElectricalTrigeminal2021a,
  title = {Stereo-Smell via Electrical Trigeminal Stimulation},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2021 {{CHI Conference}} on {{Human Factors}} in {{Computing Systems}}},
  author = {Brooks, Jas and Teng, Shan-Yuan and Wen, Jingxuan and Nith, Romain and Nishida, Jun and Lopes, Pedro},
  year = 2021,
  month = may,
  pages = {1--13},
  publisher = {ACM},
  address = {Yokohama, Japan},
  doi = {10.1145/3411764.3445300},
  isbn = {978-1-4503-8096-6},
  langid = {english}
}

View all publications →

Workshops, Panels, Symposia

All other contributions

Research figure with five labeled panels (a-e) illustrating chemical and thermal haptic interfaces. Panel (a): a person wearing a VR headset holds a blackberry to their mouth, with a diagram showing how chemical taste modulators (lactisole, miraculin, and zinc sulfate) map real foods to virtual foods with altered tastes. Panel (b): a close-up of a wrist-worn device with labeled components including a load cell, removable tag, heat sink, and motion slide rail. Panel (c): a person with eyes closed wearing a small nasal device, with text noting that Peltier elements heat and cool air in sync with breathing. Panel (d): a person wearing a VR headset and a wired glove device, alongside diagrams showing TherMosaic's thermal pre-conditioning approach, using baseline versus accelerated hot-to-cold and cold-to-hot transitions, with VR fire and ice scenarios. Panel (e): a person wearing a VR headset appears to hold a ball of fire in a robotic glove, shown against a dramatic outdoor night scene.

Workshop

Haptics beyond Vibration: Generative AI to Advance Multisensory Interfaces

Zining Zhang, Daniel Honrales, Jas Brooks, Jin Ryong Kim, Kening Zhu, Huaishu Peng

ACM UIST — November 2026

Immersive experiences are increasingly moving beyond conventional vibrotactile and force-based feedback toward multisensory forms of interaction. This workshop examines the…

Paper Website

A paper-craft illustration of a boba tea cup made from dark charcoal-colored paper. The cup contains layered torn paper documents in cream, mint green, and salmon pink, suggesting a collection of research papers or articles. The word "Bobapedia" is spelled out in wooden letters across the lower front of the cup, and colorful boba pearls in pink and mint are arranged at the bottom. A dark straw extends from the top.

Workshop

Bobapedia: A Workshop on Archiving Living Flavor Experiences

Po Yu Chen, Sol (Eunsol) Choi, Takuji Narumi, Paul Pu Liang, Jas Brooks, Lung-Pan Cheng

ACM UIST — November 2026

Flavor is an embodied, multimodal, and culturally situated design material. However, computational flavor systems often represent food through ingredients, chemical…

Paper Website

Collage of eight research project images related to perceptual and physiological augmentation. Top row, left to right: (1) an illustration of two people sweating with the text "pitter patter," depicting interoceptive or physiological awareness; (2) a person using a vibrotactile array suit and gamepad in front of a screen showing obstacle detection zones, with vibrotactile feedback indicated; (3) a person wearing a full-back vibrotactile garment while working at a laptop, with audio waveform annotations; (4) a person at a laptop with an air nozzle directed at their nose providing airflow-based feedback, alongside a respiration belt for measuring respiratory rate. Bottom row, left to right: (5) a person in a VR headset holding a blackberry to their mouth, with arrows showing taste retargeting between fruits and a spider; (6) two people interacting, one in a blue NUS-branded polo shirt, appearing to demonstrate a wearable or in-ear device; (7) a person wearing an HTC Vive VR headset with a custom scent-delivery device mounted to it, smiling in hot and cold scenes; (8) a line drawing of a person with musical notes, HR data arrows, and a smartphone, illustrating physiological data sonification.

Workshop

Toward Everyday Perceptual and Physiological Augmentation

Yujie Tao, Tan Gemicioglu, Sam Chin, Bingjian Huang, Jas Brooks, Sean Follmer, Pedro Lopes, Suranga Nanayakkara

ACM UIST — September 2025

Human senses are fundamental to how we interpret and interact with the world. Computing devices such as smart glasses, earbuds,…

Paper DOI Website

Panel

Third Wave or Winter? The Past and Future of Smell in HCI

Jofish Kaye, Marianna Obrist, Judith Amores, Jas Brooks

ACM CHI — April 2023

We responded to the following thought: Scent technology has evolved from its use in 1960s cinema to internet peripherals in…

DOI

Workshop

Smell, Taste, & Temperature Interfaces Workshop (STT23)

Jas Brooks, Alireza Bahremand, Pedro Lopes, Christy Spackman, Judith Amores, Hsin-Ni Ho, Masahiko Inami, Simon Niedenthal

ACM CHI — April 2023

Third iteration of STT as a 1-day workshop at ACM CHI 2023 focused on hands-on demonstrations and sharing of methods…

DOI Website

View all contributions →