Vision

Psybernetics Lab (PsyberLab) is an interdisciplinary research group at RPTU Kaiserslautern Landau investigating human-computer interaction, machine learning, and cognitive psychology toward amplifying human intelligence. We are developing AI-based technologies that increase peoples' cognitive capabilities such as learning, reasoning, and communicating.

Learning

Acquiring knowledge in a usable form

We propose intelligent learning assistants that recognize cognitive/affective states (e.g., attention, interest, workload, self-confidence) and optimize learning materials for individuals to improve their learning performance.

Reasoning

Making a decision based on knowledge

Smart sensing technologies enable people to track their daily activities and make rational decisions on the basis of activity logs and future projections. We also investigate nudging techniques that encourage change in their behavior.

Communicating

Sharing knowledge with others

Communicating with others is an important activity for coming up with new ideas and transferring skills. We quantify social activities such as teaching, presenting, and discussing by sensors to support collaborative work.

The term psybernetics was coined by us, as a research field designing a sensing-feedback loop among humans, machines, and knowledge. We aim to extend the measurable/controllable domain of cybernetics, which was popularized by Dr. Norbert Wiener, not only in information space and physical space but also in psychological space (e.g., emotions, affects, knowledge states). Compared to physical states, psychological states are more difficult to be measured since they are not visible. We utilize machine learning and smart sensing techniques such as eye-tracking and physiological sensing to understand human internal states.

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About Us

The predecessor of the PsyberLab was established as an informal research team by Shoya Ishimaru (previously called as Augmented Intelligence Group or Cybercognition Group) in the Smart Data & Knowledge Services Department in DFKI. Our first step toward sensing and actuating physical/cognitive/affective states was summarized in his Ph.D. thesis. In this lab, we extend the target of the interventions to the following three directions.

Time: Personalizing actuations by long-term measurements, led by Jayasankar Santhosh.
Social: Motivating learners to share knowledge with each other, led by Ko Watanabe.
Content: Utilizing educational and pedagogical theories, investigated with the Physics Education Research Group.

We are also core members of the Immersive Quantified Learning Lab (iQL-Lab) in DFKI, a classroom-based living lab where students and visitors can experience the latest learning assistant systems using sensor technologies such as eye trackers and augmented reality glasses. Our psybernetic systems are deployed in the iQL-Lab.

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Contact

Are you a Master/Bachelor student at RPTU Kaiserslautern Landau? We are offering thesis topics in artificial intelligence.

Please send an e-mail to ishimaru@cs.uni-kl.de if you have any questions or requests.