Exploring Audio and Kinetic Sensing on Earable Devices

Conference paper (2018)

Authors

Chulhong Min Nokia Bell Labs
Akhil Mathur Nokia Bell Labs
F. Kawsar Nokia Bell Labs, Internet of Things - IDE
Research Group
Internet of Things (IDE) (TU Delft)
Audio sensing Earable Earbud Kinetic sensing
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Published Date

2018

Language

English

Reuse Rights

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Faculty

Industrial Design Engineering

Department

Sustainable Design Engineering

Research Group

Internet of Things

Abstract

In this paper, we explore audio and kinetic sensing on earable devices with the commercial on-the-shelf form factor. For the study, we prototyped earbud devices with a 6-axis inertial measurement unit and a microphone. We systematically investigate the differential characteristics of the audio and inertial signals to assess their feasibility in human activity recognition. Our results demonstrate that earable devices have a superior signal-to-noise ratio under the influence of motion artefacts and are less susceptible to acoustic environment noise. We then present a set of activity primitives and corresponding signal processing pipelines to showcase the capabilities of earbud devices in converting accelerometer, gyroscope, and audio signals into the targeted human activities with a mean accuracy reaching up to 88% in varying environmental conditions.