I-Corps: Active Acoustic Sensing for Wearables

I-Corps：适用于可穿戴设备的主动声学传感

• 批准号: 2346817
• 负责人: Cheng Zhang
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-11-15 至 2024-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2346817&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Active; Acoustic; Sensing; Wearables

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of active acoustic sensing technology. Currently, there are over a billion wearable devices in use and rising, including smartwatches, smart glasses, and headphones. However, they lack the capability to continuously monitor human body pose and facial expressions. The proposed technology enables wearable devices to track human body pose and facial expressions, addressing a gap in the market. In addition, this technology facilitates activity recognition through wearable devices, aiding in tracking things such as eating habits and diet monitoring. The proposed technology may be used for medical applications, including the restoration of speech capabilities for individuals with vocal cord damage, providing an interface for computer interactions for people with disabilities, and remote health monitoring of patients. It also may enhance user experience by creating a more human-centered interface for wearable devices, simplifying computer device control, and may broaden the range of applications for wearables such as smart glasses.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a low-power, privacy-secure ultrasound sensing technology that integrates with wearable devices. The proposed technology enables wearable devices to monitor human body pose, facial expressions, and eye movements. The technology utilizes two pairs of miniature microphones (approximately 5 mm) and speakers (approximately 6 mm) that are commonly found in wearables, optimizing space utilization. The technology employs inaudible ultrasound waves (frequency 20KHz) emitted by the speakers that are reflected/diffracted by the human body, and the microphones capture relevant data. Data collected by these wearable devices may be used for various applications. Machine learning algorithms then process this information to predict body pose and facial expressions. Importantly, since only ultrasound waves are used, there is no processing of spoken words from the device wearer, ensuring no disruption to the user's daily activities. In addition, the technology is energy efficient using just 143 mW and providing over 20 hours of operation on a Google Glass battery. This sensing technology has been integrated successfully into various wearable device form-factors, including rings, wristbands, glasses, earphones, and headphones. Multiple functional prototypes have been developed and tested, and research results have been published that demonstrate the technologies utility.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.

该I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发主动声传感技术。目前，使用和上升的可穿戴设备超过十亿，包括智能手表，智能眼镜和耳机。但是，他们缺乏连续监测人体姿势和面部表情的能力。提出的技术使可穿戴设备能够跟踪人体姿势和面部表情，从而解决市场差距。 此外，这项技术有助于通过可穿戴设备识别活动，并有助于跟踪诸如饮食习惯和饮食监测之类的事物。 该提出的技术可用于医疗应用，包括恢复声带损害的人的语音能力，为残疾人提供计算机互动的接口，以及对患者的远程健康监测。 它还可以通过为可穿戴设备创建更具人为以人为中心的界面，简化计算机设备控制，并可以扩大可穿戴设备（例如智能眼镜）的应用范围来增强用户体验。该I-Corps项目基于开发与可穿戴设备集成的低功能，隐私安全超声传感技术。提出的技术使可穿戴设备可以监视人体姿势，面部表情和眼动。该技术利用两对微型麦克风（约5毫米），而扬声器（约6毫米）通常在可穿戴设备中发现，从而优化了空间利用率。该技术采用了由人体反映/衍射的说话者发出的不可察觉的超声波（频率20kHz），麦克风捕获了相关数据。 这些可穿戴设备收集的数据可用于各种应用。 然后，机器学习算法处理此信息以预测身体姿势和面部表情。重要的是，由于仅使用了超声波，因此没有设备佩戴者的口语处理，从而确保对用户的日常活动不会中断。 此外，该技术仅使用143兆瓦，并在Google玻璃电池上提供20多个小时的操作。 该传感技术已成功地集成到各种可穿戴设备的形式因子中，包括环，腕带，眼镜，耳机和耳机。已经开发和测试了多种功能原型，并已发表了研究结果，这些原型证明了技术实用程序。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，认为值得通过评估来获得支持。