Extending our sense and self through designing novel technologies

This research will take the philosophical notion of the extended mind as inspiration to investigate how we can extend our senses through designing novel technologies. We question how we can enable people to sense aspects of the environment they currently can't by designing tools and devices that can extend our sense and self. In particular, we are interested in how new tactile technologies can be designed to extend our ability to see and hear / in motion and in music. To test out our theory, we will conduct two studies, where we will design tactile systems to extend drivers' perception of the space around their vehicle and to facilitate improvising musicians' understanding of harmony and chord progressions. Our approach represents a novel application of philosophical theory to technological innovation, where conceptual philosophical analysis will feed into empirical design and empirical studies will feed back into philosophical analyses.