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

职业：耳戴式系统：实现用于医疗保健和脑机交互的耳戴式传感和驱动系统

• 批准号: 1846541
• 负责人: Tam Vu
• 金额: $ 54.04万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-02-15 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1846541&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Earable; Systems; Enabling; Ear

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.

人的头部容纳了许多重要的生理信号，诸如脑信号（EEG）、面部肌肉信号（EMG）、眼睛信号（EOG）等，这些信号在推断用户的精神、生理和身体状态方面具有巨大的价值。此外，它也是一个理想的身体部位，用于施加大脑刺激。然而，大多数现有的基于头部的感测和刺激方法是麻烦的、侵入性的并且昂贵的，大多数仅适合于固定和短期使用，诸如在诊所或医院中。该项目旨在通过实现一种新型的可穿戴传感和致动系统来填补这一空白，该系统可以不引人注目地，连续地，舒适地，同时感知大量基于头部的生理信号并致动以刺激大脑，同时保持对公众的最低可见度。虽然可穿戴设备的广泛接受的形式因素是手表，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，即耳戴式传感和致动方法（称为Earable Systems），通过使可穿戴设备更容易被社会接受和公众更少地看到，来驯服长期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来自于关键的研究活动。这些活动包括：使用波传播的叠加原理来制定去往和来自人耳的多个基于头部的信号传播模型;开发用于感测个体基于头部的生理信号的算法、实验硬件块、分析模型和软件库;开发闭环刺激技术、相关硬件、分析工具和安全指南，用于从耳进行有效和安全的即时脑刺激;并在实验室中评估Earable Systems和建议的平台，以获得引人注目的实际应用。该项目的更广泛的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访问和夏季研讨会将研究结果转化为服务不足的中学生和当地教师的演示和实践经验。 它还将为未来的工程和医疗保健工作人员提供独特的跨学科教育。 它还将通过为临床医生和本科工程专业学生提供的两门开放式在线课程（MOOC），为未来的医疗保健技术提供见解。 而且，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项目。该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。

项目成果

eBP: FREQUENT AND COMFORTABLE BLOOD PRESSURE MONITORING FROM INSIDE HUMAN'S EARS

eBP：从人耳内进行频繁且舒适的血压监测

• DOI: 10.1145/3400713.3400721
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: GetMobile: Mobile Computing and Communications
• 作者: Bui, Nam;Pham, Nhat;Truong, Hoang;Nguyen, Phuc;Xiao, Jianliang;Deterding, Robin;Dinh, Thang;Vu, Tam
• 通讯作者: Vu, Tam

FaceSense: Sensing Face Touch with an Ear-worn System

• DOI: 10.1145/3478129
• 发表时间: 2021-09-01
• 期刊: PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACM ON INTERACTIVE MOBILE WEARABLE AND UBIQUITOUS TECHNOLOGIES-IMWUT
• 作者: Kakaraparthi, Vimal;Shao, Qijia;Vu, Tam
• 通讯作者: Vu, Tam

eBP: an ear-worn device for frequent and comfortable blood pressure monitoring

eBP：一种耳戴式设备，用于频繁、舒适地监测血压

• DOI: 10.1145/3470446
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Communications of the ACM
• 影响因子: 22.7
• 作者: Bui, Nam;Pham, Nhat;Barnitz, Jessica Jacqueline;Zou, Zhanan;Nguyen, Phuc;Truong, Hoang;Kim, Taeho;Farrow, Nicholas;Nguyen, Anh;Xiao, Jianliang
• 通讯作者: Xiao, Jianliang

eBP: A Wearable System For Frequent and Comfortable Blood Pressure Monitoring From User's Ear

eBP：一种可穿戴系统，可通过用户的耳朵进行频繁、舒适的血压监测

• DOI: 10.1145/3300061.3345454
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: MobiCom '19: The 25th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking
• 作者: Bui, Nam;Pham, Nhat;Barnitz, Jessica Jacqueline;Zou, Zhanan;Nguyen, Phuc;Truong, Hoang;Kim, Taeho;Farrow, Nicholas;Nguyen, Anh;Xiao, Jianliang
• 通讯作者: Xiao, Jianliang

Detection of Microsleep Events With a Behind-the-Ear Wearable System

• DOI: 10.1109/tmc.2021.3090829
• 发表时间: 2021-06
• 期刊: IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing
• 影响因子: 7.9
• 作者: Nhat Pham;Tuan Dinh;Taeho Kim;Zohreh Raghebi;Nam Bui;Hoang Truong;Tuan Nguyen;F. Banaei-Kashani;A. Halbower;Thang N. Dinh;Vp Nguyen;Tam N. Vu