Augmenting Human Senses: Enhancing Perception with Technology and Bioscience

This course will introduce the neuroscience of human sensory perception (hearing, balance, vision, smell, taste, touch) and explore avenues by which technology and bioscience will enhance and augment these human senses. Employing artificial intelligence, emerging devices with embedded sensors may afford perceptual and cognitive abilities beyond the limits of our biological systems. We will consider emerging multi-functional devices with capabilities beyond their sensory functions via connection within an ecosystem of technologies to characterize activities (e.g., physical, social), enhance safety (e.g., fall alerts, balance improvement), track health (e.g., multi-sensory biometric monitoring), enhance communication (e.g., speech enhancement, language translation, virtual assistant), augment cognition (e.g., memory, understanding), and monitor emotional wellbeing (e.g., sentiment, depression). We will also review simulated multisensory stimuli towards achieving immersive experiences with virtual and augmented reality technologies.