Immersive feedback for virtual reality: turns out that the next wearable device is your own muscles

Pedro Lopes reflects on the contemporary relationships in human-computer interaction integration. Pedro presents interfaces that read & write directly to the user’s body through our muscles. These interfaces augment humans & their realities by using electrical muscle stimulation to actuate our muscles as interfaces to new virtual worlds. These interfaces, which Pedro engineers at the Hasso Plattner Institut in Germany, provide a very idiosyncratic way of interacting with digital data, bring inanimate objects to life, embody the computer and be immersed in the virtual.

Pedro’s work is a philosophical investigation of HCI as in Human-Computer Integration, rather than merely “Interaction”. Pedro’s work has captured the interest of media, such as NBC, Discovery Channel, NewScientist or Wired. As a musician, he plays percussion with turntables. Pedro has performed in venues such as Transmediale, Serralves Foundation, and in ensembles conducted by William Winnant & Reinhold Friedl.