I-Corps: A smart ring for finger motion analytics and healthcare applications

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种具有集成传感器的智能环，用于扩展现实和智能医疗中的应用。该技术可用于远程监测患者的健康生物测量数据，包括心率、血氧饱和度、血压、血糖、血酒精浓度和室内位置。这可能会改善对健康问题的早期发现，跟踪和改善健康和健康，并减少用于监测患者的人力资源。此外，拟议的智能戒指技术可用于帮助聋人和重听人与听力正常的人进行交流。提出的技术是用一个集成的手语识别(SLR)系统设计的。目前，美国的聋人和重听人口约为1000万，全球约为4.66亿，然而，目前还不存在有效的沟通工具。这项建议的技术可以服务于聋人和重听社区的重要需求。这个i-Corps项目是基于3D手指运动跟踪智能戒指的开发。所提出的技术是通过将使用片上系统(SoC)架构的低成本现成电子元件集成到可弯曲为环形形状的柔性印刷电路板中来设计的。内置惯性测量单元(IMU)和光体积描记(PPG)传感器，可实现手语识别等运动分析，以及心率、血氧饱和度、血压、血液酒精浓度和血糖等医疗保健应用。硬件被封装在3D打印的防水盒中，可以与皮肤顺利接触。总体而言，这款机型重约2.5克，电池续航时间为一周，可以舒适地长时间佩戴，包括睡觉和游泳。结果表明，在少数手指上放置稀疏环来跟踪24个手指运动自由度是可行的。这是一个没有良好方程的无约束问题，因为传感器并不是放置在每个手指或关节上。深度学习技术被用来学习传感器数据和手指运动之间的映射，利用不同手指运动之间的相关性来解决不受约束的问题。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 broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a smart ring with integrated sensors for applications in extended reality and smart healthcare. The proposed technology may be used to monitor patients’ health biometric data including heart rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, blood glucose, blood alcohol concentration and indoor location remotely. This may improve early detection of health issues, track and improve health and wellness, and reduce human resources devoted to the monitoring of patients. In addition, the proposed smart ring technology may be used to help deaf and hard of hearing individuals communicate with hearing individuals. The proposed technology is designed with an integrated sign language recognition (SLR) system. Currently, the population of deaf and hard of hearing individuals is about 10 million in the US and 466 million globally, however, an efficient communication tool does not exist. The proposed technology could serve an important need for the deaf and hard of hearing community.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a 3D finger motion tracking smart ring. The proposed technology is designed by integrating low-cost, off-the-shelf electronic components using system-on-a-chip (SoC) architecture into a flexible printed circuit board that can bend in the form factor of a ring. Inertial measurement unit (IMU) and photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors are embedded for enabling motion analytics such as sign language recognition and healthcare applications such as heart rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, blood alcohol concentration and blood glucose. The hardware is enclosed in a 3D-printed waterproof case that allows smooth contact with the skin. Overall, the form factor weighs about 2.5 g with a week of battery life for comfortable and long-term wearing including while sleeping and swimming. Results show the feasibility of tracking 24 degrees of freedom of finger motion using sparse rings placed on a few fingers. This is an unconstrained problem without well-formed equations because the sensors are not placed on every finger or joint. Deep learning techniques are utilized to learn the mapping between sensor data and finger motion that exploit correlations between motion of different fingers to solve the unconstrained problem.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.