Adrien Husson is an engineer and designer. At CRI, he co-created the Motion Lab in 2016 to address issues of movement in learning, and the role that digital can play in it. Working on various projects and objects (such as’Hitbox, interactive boxing bag exhibited at the Cité des Sciences in 2019), Adrien has been able to maintain the multidisciplinary approach he cherishes, while continuing to learn on a daily basis, and developing his own curiosity.
Adrien first came into contact with CRI in 2014 while working on his diploma project. The idea was to trace a teacher's gesture through real-time sound rendering, so that the student could reproduce the gesture in turn. Following this work and discussions with Kevin Lhoste, Adrien began working on this project in collaboration with the CRI (via OpenLab) and the’IRCAM in 2015. A year later, he co-created with Joël Chevrier the Motion Lab, The Motion Lab is a laboratory that tackles the issue of movement in learning, by examining the contributions that digital technology can make. The Motion Lab - a real entity in motion - brings together resources, federates players from different fields (IRCAM, general engineering schools, psychomotricians, podiatrists, sports institutions such as INSEP, CRI's digital track science...), and above all creates projects around fairly broad subjects such as health, education, scenography, accessibility... The idea is to create bridges, to popularize the way of using tools, to explain through practice.
The first Motion Lab project concerned healthcare: in partnership with the head of the orthopedics department at Lariboisière Hospital in Paris, Adrien and his colleagues set up sensors to better support patients' rehabilitation after hip or knee replacement surgery. They questioned how to process and represent the data collected, before creating demonstration prototypes to support patients. In the same spirit, Adrien is currently working with a doctoral student on psychomotricity issues, and in particular on the development of an instrumented pen for analyzing handwriting. Some projects (such as of the RGB lamp) have more to do with design, and question how, using highly technical resources (sensors, algorithms, electronic cards), it is possible to play on the sensibility generated by an experience in the user, and how to anchor what can be learned through this experience. Adrien is passionate about this approach:
« We start with research questions and produce the technique and design by doing, and by opening this up as much as possible. ». He explains that going from a broad idea to a prototype in this way is unique, and specific to the framework that the CRI offers. « This approach is only possible here. » According to Adrien, the CRI is a departure not only from the pure logic of research, but also from that of industry, and the constraints that go with it. The engineer-designer has no regrets about the position of product manager-engineer he could have held in a large company. « That would have cut me off from all the curiosity that the freedom of CRI allows me. ».
While working at the CRI, he learns continuously (data analysis, the machine learning, among others), has a very open space in which to research and create, and has even been able to delve back into maths, something he wouldn't have been able to do in a more closed industrial setting. « At the CRI, we can deal with the same issues as in industry, with the same resources, but in an unconventional way.. » Adrien, with his hybrid profile, fits perfectly into this complex, interdisciplinary framework.
His latest project, Hitbox, This interactive boxing bag was exhibited at the Cité des Sciences in Paris. This interactive boxing bag was exhibited at the Cité des Sciences in 2019. It can have multiple uses: encouraging physical activity, transmitting a coach's gestures to pupils, limiting apprehension of the risk of injury, or simply being displayed as a design object at an event or exhibition. Its development is available as open source, something in which Adrien is a great believer. In his view, open source is a lever for innovation in education, enabling much greater accessibility (territorial, social, etc.). Adrien, who is passionate about digital issues, sees them as « a cathedral times 100,000 »is stimulated by the development of these projects. « Digital technology allows us to store and represent a thousand and one things in a multidimensional space. ». Resources are infinite, and access to knowledge and learning is vast: « CRI is an ideal place to address these kinds of questions ». Adrien intends to continue exploring these issues, particularly those related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) concerning access to education for all, as he develops his curiosity and critical thinking skills through practical experience. He already has new projects in mind for and with CRI.»
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An article by Marie OLLIVIER
