Mariana Nunes, CMU Portugal Affiliated Ph.D. student, and Tiago Bolãnos, researcher at Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT), won the “SPARK Research Challenge: Kid-friendly Poster Competition” integrated in the Center for Responsible AI’s Summer Demo Day, held on June 5th at TUMO Coimbra, gathering universities, start-ups, and research institutions with projects in AI.
The winning poster entitled “Communicating Without Speaking – Faster than a T-Rex”, designed for a young audience of ages 12–18, was presented as part of the HALO Project, led by Unbabel, which targets the development of a communication system that combines generative AI with a non-invasive neural interface to convert bioelectrical patterns (in particular, Electromyography – EMG) into language.
Mariana Nunes explained: “The user has an AI Persona that learns their preferences, habits, and communication style. Whenever someone sends a message, the system generates several possible responses that the user listens through headphones. To choose the response, they can simply make a subtle gesture (e.g. raise eyebrows), and the system recognizes this gesture using it to select and send the wanted response.”
Under this research, Instituto de Telecomunicações has developed a device for detecting bioelectrical signals, such as a textile headband equipped with electrodes, and novel AI algorithms that allow accurate facial gesture recognition, without requiring prior calibration.
“It was inspiring to share this cutting-edge technology with young minds and to spark their curiosity about the endless possibilities that science and AI can offer”, stated the CMU Portugal Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico, in the Department of Bioengineering (DBE). Mariana Nunes’ research, focuses on biosignals processing, is supervised by Hugo Plácido da Silva (IT/Técnico DBE), Catarina Farinha (Unbabel), and Pulkit Grover (CMU).