Manini Banerjee

Systems Designer & Research Engineer making environmental complexity legible and actionable.

COMPUTATIONAL ECOLOGY:

BIOPOD Co.
ECOLOGY · INFRASTRUCTURE · SYSTEMS
Designing deployable ecological infrastructure for wetland restoration based on environmental research.

Ecological AI

PREDICTION · INTERFACE · DATA
A Decision-Support System for Targeted Ecosystem Restoration.

Algorithmic Morphogenesis

BIO-COMPUTATION · DATA MATERIALIZATION
inscribing real-time human neurological data (EEG) into living algal morphology using phototactic actuation

HARDWARE & INTERFACES:

Threads

EDGE ML · HARDWARE · TEXTILES
Sentient Surfaces + Edge ML on Textiles. Human-AI Symbiosis through Ubiquitous Computing.

S(kin)-orb
HAPTICS · BIOSENSING · AFFECTIVE COMP. A bio-digital interface translating electromyographic (EMG) signals into haptic feedback for remote affective communication.

Vermiform

COMPONENT · SOFT ROBOTICS · WEARABLE
Bio-mimetic architectures for wearable computing.

Chito-bot
BIOCOMPOSITES · TRANSIENT ELECTRONICS
Investigating material compliance and structural integrity in bio-composite hexapods.

STRATEGIC SYSTEMS:

PFV

MOBILITY · ECOLOGY · SYSTEMS

Autonomous Mobility as Urban Bio-Infrastructure.

Aero

SENSING · MATERIALS · DATA
Developing robotic material systems for localized air-quality sensing and pollutant sequestration through embedded environmental intelligence.

Bio - intelligence
COPMUTATION · SYSTEMS · BIOLOGY
Exploring biological computation as an alternative model for system intelligence and control.

S(kin)-orb

Enhancing human to human communication through technology

Tools: 3D Printing • 3D Modelling • Robotics Design

Date: 2023

Team: Vir Joseph Naidu • Manini Banerjee • Cynthia Lu

When a person is anxious, their heart starts to race. When they are scared, they get goosebumps. These are bodily reactions that we cannot hide.

Despite this, we as a society have learned to create a facade over time to mask our emotions and state, as a way to appear emotionally intelligent, strong and desirable.

The S-Orb is a robotic entity that acts as a robotic extension in order to regain comfort in expressing your involuntary feelings.
Let us connect at an emotional level: Hold your S-Orb, connect to another’s S-Orb, and feel their emotions.

The S-Orb is a robotic entity that interrogates the boundaries of the uncanny valley through its amorphous skin-like embodiment.

The S-Orb is a symphony of pulse, skin, fluid and sensation that comes together to create unexplainable and
unspoken human-to-human and human-to-robotic bonds.

We have substituted metal and screws for skin and veins - thus ushering in this renaissance of what we perceive
to be robots to be and their appearance within humanity. While interaction with humanoid robots still remains unsettling,
the S-Orb acts as an intermediary stepping stone to introduce amorphous interaction to users to ease our adoption of these robots.

The robot acts as an object of telepresence that promotes remote human connection in a tangible way. This is a physical and intimate bond that could help us understand each other better - creating a more empathic and harmonious society.

The S-Orb reflects human emotion by reading its user’s electromyographic signals. Thus, triggering spinal motion, sweat and heat responses. This creates an innate human language which is expressed through the S-Orb’s embodiment.