Earable Computers : Ear-worn Systems for Healthcare, HCI, BCI, and Brain Stimulations

This talk introduces the concept of "Earable computers", small computing and actuating devices that are worn inside, behind, around, or on user's ears. Earable sensing and actuation are motivated from the fact that human ears are relatively close to the sources of many important physiological signals such as the brain, eyes, facial muscles, heart, core body temperature, and more. Therefore, placing the sensors and associated stimulators inside the ear canals or behind the ears could open up a wide range of applications from improving cognitive function, keeping truck drivers from falling asleep while driving, extending attention span, to quantifying pain and suffering, reducing opioid use, suppressing seizure, just to name a few. This talk will discuss the opportunities that earable systems could bring and system challenges that need to be addressed to unleash its potentials. I will share our experience and lessons learned through realizing such systems in the context of human computer interaction, brain computer interaction, and healthcare.  

Bio: 
Tam Vu is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science Department at University of Colorado, Boulder. He directs Mobile and Networked Systems (MNS) Lab at the university, where he and his team conduct system research in the areas of wearable and mobile systems including mobile healthcare, mobile security, cyber physical system, and wireless sensing. His research has been recognized with a NSF CAREER award, two Google Faculty Awards, ten best paper awards, best paper nomination, and research highlights in flagship venues in mobile system research including MobiCom, MobiSys, and SenSys. He is also actively pushing his research outcomes to practice through technology transfer activities with 17 patents filed and leading two start-ups that he co-founded to commercialize them.

To request accommodations for a disability, please contact Emily Lawrence, emilyl@cs.princeton.edu, 609-258-4624 at least one week prior to the event.