Unobtrusive Physiological Monitoring and Biofeedback for Healthy Aging

2018.07 – 2022.06

Principal Investigators

Gabor C. Temes (Oregon State University)

Tory M. Hagen (Oregon State University)

Gert Cauwenberghs (University of California, San Diego)

Students

Manjunath Kareppagoudr (Oregon State University)

Akshay Paul (University of California, San Diego)

Report

Unobtrusive Physiological Monitoring and Biofeedback for Healthy Aging

 

2019-2020 Annual Report

 

  1. Personnel: Gert Cauwenberghs, Professor, University of California, San Diego • Gabor Temes, Professor, Oregon State University • Akshay Paul, Graduate Student Researcher, University of California, San Diego • Jiawei Zheng, Postdoctoral Fellow, Oregon State University
  2. Report period: July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020
  3. Summary of Progress in the Current Period: The UCSD team (Prof. Cauwenberghs and Akshay Paul) conducted experimental studies on the electrophysiology and engineering aspects of in-ear bio-sensing. In-ear sensing has many important advantages: it places the sensor close to the brain, enabling cognitive sensing for EEG; it allows the monitoring of excretory glands; and it can be as unobtrusive as a modern hearing aid. In fact, it can be integrated with existing hearing aids.  However, the environment of the ear canal poses several challenges, especially for dry contact sensors. These factors were thoroughly investigated, and the findings are summarized in the first part of our report. The OSU team (Prof. Temes and Dr. Zheng) considered the design of the analog interface circuitry, which processes the output of the in-ear sensor and converts it into a digital signal for further processing on a host computer.  Because of the special properties of the sensor output, this turned out to be a challenging task which required substantial effort in the design optimization and careful layout of the integrated circuit.  The fabricated chip promises to meet the specifications, as described in the second part of our report. A considerable amount of experimental and analysis work remains to be completed by both teams in the next and final stage of the project.  Further experiments need to be performed to evaluate and optimize inear sensors.  While the interface circuit has been extensively simulated has been completed, testing the fabricated chip may identify new issues that need to be addressed.  These and other directions for future work in the project, and beyond, are summarized in the third part of our report.