CSR: Large: Collaborative Research:Smart earpiece for supporting healthy eating behaviors

肥胖是我国面临的最紧迫的健康挑战之一，一直是移动健康（mHealth）社区关注的目标。虽然肥胖科学表明饮食是行为改变的主要因素，以鼓励健康的体重管理，但我们仍然无法有效，快速和轻松地测量饮食行为。这个项目的目标是开发一种数字耳机，小而舒适，可以戴在耳后，可以感知和检测诸如饮食等行为。该项目的长期愿景是使行为健康研究人员能够更好地了解与健康有关的行为，并随后支持开发有效的行为健康干预措施，促进健康的饮食和行为。最终，更好地理解饮食相关行为，更好地设计有效的饮食行为干预措施，将对个人和公共健康以及国家经济产生深远的影响。该项目的硬件和软件原型将在研究界广泛共享，以便围绕耳机设备的传感和交互机会进行实验。此外，该项目直接涉及本科生和研究生的跨学科研究，并延伸到中学生，扩大了在这一重要新兴课题上受过教育的科学家的供应。该项目的方法是制造一个原型无线耳机，它足够小，可以戴在耳后，具有低功耗（微瓦级）的电子设备和软件，足以让电池持续一整天的清醒时间；开发有效的算法来检测和区分与健康相关的行为（饮食、饮酒、吸烟、说话和压力）；并为佩戴者与耳机及其应用开发简单有效的交互手段。该团队希望开发新颖的低功耗模拟电子设备和分布式软件算法，用于从传感器数据推断相关行为；开发新的交互模式，包括耳机和佩戴者之间的骨传导音频，辅以耳机、皮肤或腕带或智能手机等辅助设备上的触觉界面；并通过用户研究和实验室内外的实验来验证这些方法。

Obesity is one of the most pressing health challenges faced by our country, and has been the target of much attention in the mobile health (mHealth) community. While the science of obesity indicates that diet is a major factor in behavioral change to encourage healthy weight management, we are still not able to effectively, quickly and easily measure eating and drinking behavior. This project's goal is to develop a digital earpiece,­­ small and comfortable enough to wear behind the ear,­­ that can sense and detect actions such as eating and drinking. The project's long­term vision is to enable behavioral ­health researchers to better understand health-­related behaviors and, subsequently, to support the development of effective behavioral­ health interventions that promote healthy diet and behavior. Ultimately, a better understanding of eating-­related behaviors, and better design of effective interventions regarding eating behavior, will have profound impact on personal and public health as well as the national economy. The project's hardware and software prototypes will be shared widely in the research community to enable experimentation around the sensing and interaction opportunities possible in an earpiece device. Furthermore, the project directly involves undergraduate and graduate students in interdisciplinary research, and outreach to middle­school students, expanding the supply of scientists educated in this important emerging topic. The project's approach is to build a prototype wireless earpiece, small enough to wear behind the ear, with low­power (microwatt­scale) electronics and software sufficient to allow for the battery to last a full waking day; to develop efficient algorithms for detecting and distinguishing health­related behaviors (eating, drinking, smoking, speaking, and stress); and to develop easy and effective means for the wearer to interact with the earpiece and its applications. The team expects to develop novel low­-power analog electronics and distributed software algorithms for inferring relevant behaviors from sensor data; develop novel interaction modalities involving bone ­conduction audio between the earpiece and its wearer, complemented by tactile interfaces on the earpiece, on the skin, or on auxiliary devices like a wristband or smartphone; and validate these approaches through user studies and experiments inside and outside the lab.