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.

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是主动声学传感技术的发展。目前，包括智能手表、智能眼镜和耳机在内的可穿戴设备的使用数量超过10亿，而且还在不断增加。然而，它们缺乏持续监测人体姿势和面部表情的能力。该技术使可穿戴设备能够跟踪人体姿势和面部表情，填补了市场空白。此外，这项技术通过可穿戴设备促进活动识别，帮助跟踪饮食习惯和饮食监测等事情。所提出的技术可用于医疗应用，包括恢复声带损伤个体的语言能力，为残疾人提供计算机交互界面，以及对患者进行远程健康监测。它还可以通过为可穿戴设备创建更以人为本的界面来增强用户体验，简化计算机设备控制，并可能扩大智能眼镜等可穿戴设备的应用范围。I-Corps项目的基础是开发一种低功耗、隐私安全的超声波传感技术，该技术可与可穿戴设备集成。这项提议的技术使可穿戴设备能够监测人体姿势、面部表情和眼球运动。该技术利用了可穿戴设备中常见的两对微型麦克风（约5毫米）和扬声器（约6毫米），优化了空间利用率。该技术利用扬声器发出的听不见的超声波（频率为20KHz），这些超声波被人体反射/衍射，麦克风捕获相关数据。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这些信息来预测身体姿势和面部表情。重要的是，由于只使用超声波，所以不需要对设备佩戴者的语音进行处理，确保不会干扰用户的日常活动。此外，该技术节能，仅使用143兆瓦，在谷歌玻璃电池上提供超过20小时的运行。这种传感技术已经成功地集成到各种可穿戴设备中，包括戒指、腕带、眼镜、耳机和耳机。已经开发和测试了多个功能原型，并发表了研究结果，证明了该技术的实用性。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。