Innovative Human Motion Sensing With Earbuds

Earbuds, ear-worn wearables, have attracted growing attention from both industry and academia. This trend has witnessed manufacturers embedding multiple sensors on earbuds to enrich their functionalities. For example, Apple AirPods, Sony WF-1000XM3, and Bose QuietControl 30, have been equipped with accelerometers for tapping interaction or multiple microphones for noise cancellation. On the other hand, the research community regards earbuds as a powerful personal-scale human sensing and computing platform. By integrating sensors like PPG, barometer, and ultrasonic sensors, researchers have been devising a plethora of earable sensing applications, such as blood pressure monitoring [1], facial expression recognition [2], and authentication [3].