ABR: Collaborative research: Smart earpiece for supporting healthy eating behaviors

肥胖是我国面临的最紧迫的健康挑战之一，一直是移动健康（mHealth）社区关注的目标。虽然肥胖科学表明，饮食是健康体重管理的一个主要因素，但科学家们仍然无法有效、快速、轻松地测量饮食行为。该项目的目标是开发一种佩戴舒适的数字耳机（戴在耳朵上或耳朵附近），可以感知和检测饮食行为。该项目的长期愿景是使健康研究人员能够更好地了解与饮食有关的行为，并随后支持开发促进健康饮食和行为的有效干预措施。最终，更好地理解饮食相关行为，更好地设计有效的饮食行为干预措施，将对个人和公共健康以及国家经济产生深远的影响。该项目的硬件和软件原型将在研究界广泛共享，以便围绕耳机设备的传感和交互机会进行实验。此外，该项目直接涉及本科生和研究生的跨学科研究，并延伸到中学生，扩大了在这一重要新兴课题上受过教育的科学家的供应。该项目将建造一个无线耳机原型，配备低功耗（微瓦级）电子设备和软件，足以让电池持续一整天的清醒时间；开发有效的算法来检测和区分与健康有关的行为；并为佩戴者与耳机及其应用开发简单有效的交互手段。该团队希望回答对实现上述目标很重要的科学问题。具体来说，他们寻求通过设计和开发一种能够感知行为并与佩戴者互动的无线耳机来推进科学知识；开发新型低功耗模拟电子器件和分布式软件算法，用于从传感器数据推断相关行为；开发新的交互模式，包括耳机和佩戴者之间的骨传导音频，辅以耳机、皮肤或腕带或智能手机等辅助设备上的触觉界面；并通过用户研究和实验室内外的实验来验证这些方法。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。

Obesity is one of the most pressing health challenges faced by our country, and has been the target of much attention in the mobile health (mHealth) community. While the science of obesity indicates that diet is a major factor in healthy weight management, scientists are still not able to effectively, quickly and easily measure eating behavior. This project's goal is to develop a digital earpiece comfortable enough to wear (on or near the ear) that can sense and detect eating behavior. The project's long-term vision is to enable health researchers to better understand eating-related behaviors and, subsequently, to support the development of effective interventions that promote healthy diet and behavior.Ultimately, a better understanding of eating-related behaviors, and better design of effective interventions regarding eating behavior, will have profound impact on personal and public health as well as the national economy. The project's hardware and software prototypes will be shared widely in the research community to enable experimentation around the sensing and interaction opportunities possible in an earpiece device. Furthermore, the project directly involves undergraduate and graduate students in interdisciplinary research, and outreach to middle-school students, expanding the supply of scientists educated in this important emerging topic.The project will build a prototype wireless earpiece, with low-power (microwatt-scale) electronics and software sufficient to allow for the battery to last a full waking day; to develop efficient algorithms for detecting and distinguishing health-related behaviors; and to develop easy and effective means for the wearer to interact with the earpiece and its applications.The team expects to answer scientific questions important to achieving the above goals. Specifically, they seek to advance scientific knowledge through the design and development of a wireless earpiece capable of sensing behavior and interacting with its wearer; develop novel low-power analog electronics and distributed software algorithms for inferring relevant behaviors from sensor data; develop novel interaction modalities involving bone-conduction audio between the earpiece and its wearer, complemented by tactile interfaces on the earpiece, on the skin, or on auxiliary devices like a wristband or smartphone; and validate these approaches through user studies and experiments inside and outside the lab.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.