CAREER: Earable Systems: Enabling Ear-worn Sensing and Actuating Systems for Health Care and Brain-Computer Interactions

人头包含许多重要的生理信号，如脑信号(EEG)、面部肌肉信号(EMG)、眼睛信号(EOG)等，这些信号在推断使用者的心理、生理和生理状态方面具有巨大的价值。此外，它也是应用大脑刺激的理想身体部位。然而，现有的基于头部的感应和刺激方法大多繁琐、侵入性和昂贵，大多只适用于固定和短期使用，如在诊所或医院。该项目旨在通过实现一种新型的可穿戴传感和执行系统来填补这一空白，该系统可以不引人注意地、连续地、舒适地同时感知大量基于头部的生理信号，并在保持公众最低限度可见的情况下执行以刺激大脑的操作。虽然被广泛接受的可穿戴设备的外形因素是手表、眼镜和其他类型的身体佩戴形式因素，但这项工作采取了一种截然不同的方法，即耳戴式传感和驱动方法(称为可穿戴系统)来驯服一个长期以来阻碍基于头部的可穿戴系统部署的问题，即用户接受程度，使可穿戴设备更容易被社会接受，更不为公众所见。这个项目的智力价值来自于关键的研究活动。这些活动包括：利用波传播的叠加原理建立多个基于头部的信号在人耳之间的传播模型；开发算法、实验硬件块、分析模型和软件库，以感知单个基于头部的生理信号；开发闭环刺激技术、相关硬件、分析工具和安全指南，以便从耳朵进行有效且安全的即时脑刺激；以及在实验室内评估可穿戴系统和拟议的平台，以实现引人注目和实际的应用。该项目的更广泛影响来自于一个集教育、研究和推广为一体的综合计划，该计划将通过实验室访问和暑期研讨会将研究成果转化为示范和实践经验，供服务不足的中学生和当地教师使用。它还将为未来的工程和医疗保健劳动力提供独特的跨学科教育。它还将通过面向临床医生和本科工程学学生的两门开放式在线课程(MOOC)提供对未来医疗技术的洞察。此外，本科生和研究生都将参与使用可穿戴系统概念的高级跨学科医疗保健项目。这项研究有可能通过行业推广和实习将科学发现和技术知识转化为有益的商业产品。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The human head houses many important physiological signals such as brain signals (EEG), facial muscle signals (EMG), eye signals (EOG), etc. which have tremendous value in inferring the user's mental, physiological, and physical states. In addition, it also serves as an ideal body part for applying brain stimulations. However, most of the existing head-based sensing and stimulation methods are cumbersome, intrusive, and expensive, mostly suitable only for stationary and short-term usages such as in clinics or hospitals. This project aims to fill that gap by enabling a novel form of wearable sensing and actuating systems that can unobtrusively, continuously, comfortably, and simultaneously sense a multitude of head-based physiological signals and actuate to stimulate the brain while remaining minimally visible to the public. While the well-accepted form factors for wearable devices are watches, glasses, and other kinds of body-worn form factors, this work takes a drastically different approach, an ear-worn sensing and actuation approach (called Earable Systems) to tame a problem that has long hindered the deployment of head-based wearable systems, namely user acceptance, by making the wearable devices more socially acceptable and less visible to the public. The intellectual merit of this project stems from the key research activities. The activities include: formulating multiple head-based signal propagation models to and from human ears using superposition principle of wave propagation; developing algorithms, experimental hardware blocks, analytical models, and software libraries for sensing individual head-based physiological signals; developing closed-loop stimulation techniques, associated hardware, analytical tools, and safety guidelines for effective and safe just-in-time brain stimulation from the ears; and evaluating Earable Systems and the proposed platform in-lab for a compelling and practical application. This project's broader impacts stem from an integrated program of education, research and outreach that will translate the research results into demonstrations and hands-on experiences for under-served middle school students and local teachers through lab visits and summer workshops. It will also provide a unique interdisciplinary education for future engineering and healthcare workforce. It will also provide insight to future healthcare technologies through two Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for clinicians and undergraduate engineering students. And, both undergraduate and graduate students will be involved in advanced interdisciplinary healthcare projects using Earable Systems concepts. The research has the potential to translate scientific discovery and technical knowledge into beneficial commercial products through industry outreach and internships.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.