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

人的头部储存着许多重要的生理信号，如脑信号（EEG）、面部肌肉信号（EMG）、眼信号（EOG）等，这些信号在推断使用者的心理、生理和身体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，大多数现有的基于头部的传感和刺激方法都是笨重的、侵入性的和昂贵的，大多数只适合于固定和短期使用，如诊所或医院。该项目旨在通过实现一种新型的可穿戴传感和驱动系统来填补这一空白，该系统可以不引人注目、连续、舒适地同时感知大量基于头部的生理信号，并在公众最小程度上保持可见的情况下驱动刺激大脑。虽然可穿戴设备被广泛接受的外形因素是手表、眼镜和其他类型的身体穿戴形式因素，但这项工作采用了一种截然不同的方法，一种戴耳式传感和驱动方法（称为Earable Systems），通过使可穿戴设备更容易被社会接受，更不容易被公众看到，从而解决了长期以来阻碍头戴式可穿戴系统部署的问题，即用户接受度。这个项目的智力价值源于关键的研究活动。研究活动包括：利用波传播的叠加原理，建立多个基于头部的人耳信号传播模型；开发算法，实验硬件模块，分析模型和软件库，用于感知个体头部生理信号；开发闭环刺激技术、相关硬件、分析工具和安全指南，以实现有效和安全的即时脑刺激；并评估Earable系统和拟议的实验室平台，以获得引人注目的实际应用。该项目的广泛影响源于一个综合的教育、研究和推广计划，该计划将通过实验室参观和夏季讲习班，将研究成果转化为示范和实践经验，为服务不足的中学生和当地教师提供服务。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。它还将通过两门面向临床医生和工科本科生的开放在线课程（MOOCs），为未来的医疗技术提供见解。并且，本科生和研究生都将参与使用Earable Systems概念的高级跨学科医疗保健项目。这项研究有可能通过工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。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.