Embodied AI: Augmenting Human Capabilities Through Body-Centric Intelligence
COM3 Level 2
SR21, COM3 02-60
Note: Light refreshments will be provided after the seminar.
Abstract:
The dominant interaction paradigm with AI today—textual prompting—limits its potential to support the embodied, real-world nature of human activity. This talk advocates for a shift toward Embodied AI, where intelligence is physically and cognitively integrated with the human body to augment capabilities and interactions in context-rich environments.
I will present research from my group that advances this vision across three key dimensions necessary for body-centered interactive AI systems: sensing, action, and cognition. Sensing captures human activity and physiological state through highly wearable, epidermal devices. Action augments physical interaction with real-time, on-body feedback through expressive tactile interfaces and wearable robotics. Cognition closes the loop by coordinating sensing and action in context. Here, I will show how generative motion models and LLMs enable adaptive embodied behaviors—assisting physical activities, shaping communicative gestures, and orchestrating haptic experiences across complex 3D environments.
Together, these advances point toward a future where AI is not just an external tool but a deeply integrated partner in human physical and contextualized activity.
Bio:
Jürgen Steimle is a full professor in the Department of Computer Science at Saarland University in Germany, where he directs the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science from 2022-24. He was a Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab. He received his PhD in Computer Science from Darmstadt University of Technology. His research investigates touch and haptic interfaces, human-robot interaction, and digital fabrication using new materials. His contributions have been recognized with an ERC Starting Grant, best paper awards at ACM CHI and UIST, and the Best Computer Science Dissertation Award 2009 by the German, Austrian and Swiss Computer Societies. He served as Program Chair for UIST 2023 and TEI 2017, General Chair for ISS 2017, and is on the Editorial Board of TOCHI.
https://hci.cs.uni-saarland.de/
Please register at the link to confirm your participation by Wednesday, 26 November 2025.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeEXj_L-QcdPpGpcf5yZxo-bDU0BgLWND_JtzFmFfSaYCNf8A/viewform