From Perception to Bioadaptive AI

    How did Hannes Bend move from art to bioadaptive AI?

    The through-line is perception. Early painting and sculpture studied how attention shapes what a viewer sees; installation and VR work from 2015 moved that inquiry inside the body, using breathing and pulse as the material. From 2017 the same question became engineering: camera-based sensing, and interfaces that adapt to a person's present state — described in two issued US patents in one family for adaptive screen-based interfaces (2019 and 2023). A 2020 international volunteer initiative with more than 170 multidisciplinary contributors explored contactless sensing concepts. Each stage below is dated and linked to its evidence.

    Hannes Bend's work evolved from studying how external environments shape human perception to building AI systems that sense and adapt to the internal human state.

    For the terminology behind this trajectory, read Somatic AI vs. embodied AI, affective computing and bioadaptive interfaces, and the moral case for bio-personalized technology.

    Phase 7 — 2021–Present

    Bioadaptive AI Platforms

    Operationalizing bioadaptive systems into global platforms.

    Breathing AI reports users in more than 150 countries according to its product records. TransformingAI serves as the research, intellectual-property and venture umbrella connecting Breathing AI, VitalSign AI and OptimizingAI.

    Focus: From research prototypes toward scalable adaptive AI products, developer systems and research applications.

    Phase 6 — 2025–

    VitalSign AI — API & Web Platform

    Commercial bioadaptive AI platform offering remote physiological sensing via standard webcams.

    • ·rPPG heart rate detection
    • ·Higher-level state estimates (experimental)
    • ·Posture detection
    • ·Alertness / fatigue indicators (experimental, probabilistic)
    • ·Breathing rate (in development)
    • ·Scalable API for enterprise integration
    • ·Web application for research and product teams

    VitalSign AI is being developed for API integrations, research use and application-specific pilots. Public claims should distinguish current product capabilities from experimental and future capabilities.

    Focus: Contactless sensing of physiological signals across digital environments; higher-level state estimates remain probabilistic and require application-specific validation.

    Phase 5 — 2019 and 2023

    Granted Adaptive-Interface Patents

    The mYndful / Metaverses biofeedback research formalized into granted US patents for machine-learning interfaces driven by physiological bio-signals.

    Focus: Protecting camera-based physiological sensing and adaptive interface response.

    Phase 4 — March–September 2020

    COVID-19 Volunteer Initiative — Remote Sensing Concepts

    In 2020, Hannes Bend led an international volunteer initiative involving more than 170 healthcare practitioners, researchers, data scientists, designers, developers and other contributors exploring camera-based physiological sensing and remote health-support concepts during COVID-19.

    The initiative informed later work on remote vital-sign sensing. It was not a controlled study and produced no published accuracy results.

    Focus: Scalable, contactless sensing of physiological signals.

    Phase 3 — 2017–2018

    Camera-Based rPPG Research (MIT & Immersive Systems)

    Early exploration of remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) and bioadaptive visual systems.

    Focus: Translating physiological signal detection into interactive immersive systems.

    Phase 2 — 2014–2016

    Neuroscience & Human State Research

    Shift into scientific investigation of internal perception.

    Metaverses / mYndful

    A VR heart-rate biofeedback system merging neuroscience, meditation research, and immersive technology.

    • ·EEG study with 44 subjects and 20,000+ visual stimuli
    • ·fMRI meditation studies
    • ·Development at University of Oregon, Institute of Neuroscience
    • ·Alemán Lab collaboration

    Presented at

    Focus: Measuring internal state and linking it to adaptive digital systems.

    Phase 1 — 2003–2013

    Artistic Practice, Perception & Environment

    International museum exhibitions and an interdisciplinary artistic practice investigating perception, symbolic systems, embodiment, and how reality is constructed.

    • ·2003 — CircULaR Series begins: fragmented circular paintings staging perception as active completion
    • ·2010 — CandY Sculptures, Half Gallery, New York: cast sugar-based works on fragility, value, and preservation
    • ·2012 — ECLIPSE, Charest-Weinberg, Miami: environmental installation around the Osborne Reef
    • ·International exhibitions and environmental systems research
    • ·Reef ReCreation — ecological modeling and artificial reef systems (University of Michigan SEAS)

    Focus: Understanding how environment, materials, and symbols shape perception — foundation for later internal-state research.