HCIS is the chair of Prof. Dr. Kai Kunze at the Institut für Informatik of TU Clausthal. The group builds wearable systems, in particular smart eyewear, that measure physiological signals and support human perception, cognition and emotion. Its application areas are cognitive health, accessible human-machine interaction and digital empathy. The group builds hardware prototypes quickly and evaluates them in lab and field studies.
The group grew out of GEIST, the lab Kai Kunze founded at the Keio Graduate School of Media Design in September 2015: “a research lab … as well as a loosely connected collective of individuals driven by the same ideals.”
Geist (pronunciation: [ˈɡaɪst] ) is a German word that means “mind,” “spirit” or “ghost,” depending on the context. It was already mid-20th century when the British philosopher Gilbert Ryle poked fun at Cartesian mind-body dualism by calling it “the dogma of the Ghost in the Machine,” in which our mind and body was understood as separate and unequal entities: the mind is the master that controls the body.
Now we have come to understand that our mind and body are one and inseparable, and that what-controls-what is anything but clear-cut. But our imagination has not quite let go of the long-cherished dualism: the idea of eternal life is making a (millionth) comeback as some start to see our consciousness as data (any “Ghost in the Shell” fans?).
Is technology tugging us back to Cartesian dualism? Or is it opening up a new space for exploration in our understanding of mind, body and what humans are capable of?
Here at Geist, we want to use technology to better understand, play with and augment human capacities. By combining insights from cognitive science, psychology and social sciences with tech (e.g. wearable sensors, deep learning, etc.), we seek to bring you that sense of wonder you felt when you first managed to balance yourself on two spinning wheels or breathed underwater with all those strange creatures.
Technology has always expanded our perspectives. So can digital tech. Let’s amplify our sense of wonder.
In April 2026 Kai Kunze was appointed University Professor of Human-Centered Information Systems at TU Clausthal. Three goals guide the chair: technology for cognitive health and dementia prevention, developed with partners from neuroscience, computer science and the health sciences; accessible, barrier-free human-machine interaction, with planned Living Labs with municipal partners and health institutions that test systems in real living environments; and sustainable, emotional interaction, where Digitalized-Emotion systems record emotional responses to environmental problems and are meant to support sustainable behaviour.
Partners
The chair’s partners are Norscope, CareCloud, Forschungsnetzwerk NaMeKi and Graduate School of Media Design, Keio University (recent joint publications, including the chair’s two DIS ’26 papers, come out of this collaboration).
The group’s earlier projects from the Keio years are kept in the research archive; the institute’s official pages, including courses and announcements, are at www.ifi-hcis.tu-clausthal.de.
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