Events

MassAITC Webinar – Opportunities and Challenges in Automatic Detection of Momentary Stress via Wearables, Santosh Kumar

https://youtu.be/wKgXSOgZSdU?si=PjYmoeQYrISdVqdz Talk Abstract:  Stress, a double-edged sword, has been long recognized for its potential to fuel productivity, enhance performance, and provide life-saving bursts of energy in times of imminent danger. Excessive and repetitive stress, however, can harm our physiological, psychological, behavioral, and social well-being. Due to its wide prevalence and impact in our lives, stress detection is increasingly being introduced in smartwatches, rings, and other wearables to help us become aware of and mitigate excessive stress. But unlike activity tracking, stress detection is yet to be adopted widely. What makes real-life stress detection so challenging? What progress has been made thus far and what else needs to be done to make stress detection truly useful? About the Speaker:  Santosh Kumar is the Lillian & Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence Professor in Computer Science at the…

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MassAITC Webinar – Wearable Acoustic and Vibration Sensing and Machine Learning for Human Health and Performance, Omer Inan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHCNy3hzdXk This talk will focus on: Digital health technology in precision medicine Advancements in cardiogenic vibration sensing Musculoskeletal sensing and joint acoustic emissions Abstract: Recent advances in digital health technologies are enabling biomedical researchers to reframe health optimization and disease treatment in a patient-specific, personalized manner. This talk will focus on my group’s research in two areas of relevance to digital health: (1) cardiogenic vibration sensing and analytics; and (2) musculoskeletal sensing with joint acoustic emissions and bioimpedance. Our group has extensively studied the timings and characteristics of cardiogenic vibration signals such as the ballistocardiogram and seismocardiogram, and applied these signals for cuffless blood pressure measurement, heart failure monitoring, and human performance. We have also leveraged miniature contact microphones to measure the sounds emitted by joints, such as the knees, in the context of movement,…

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Publication: Development of a One Dollar Blood Pressure Monitor

Authors: Yinan Xuan, Ava J. Fascetti, Colin Barry, Edward J. Wang Abstract BPClip is an ultra-low-cost cuffless blood pressure monitor. As a universal smartphone attachment, BPClip leverages the computational imaging power of smartphones to perform oscillometry based blood pressure measurements. This paper examines different design considerations in BPClip's development. The cost and accuracy of blood pressure measurements are the central design goals. Both of these requirements are achieved with the initial prototype that achieves a $0.80 USD material cost and a mean absolute error of 8.72 and 5.49 mmHg for systolic and diastolic blood pressure, respectively. Since a main motivator to develop BPClip is making blood pressure monitoring more accessible, usability is also central to the design. User studies were conducted throughout the design process to inform the most intuitive and accessible design features. In…

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Publication: Capturing Measures That Matter: The Potential Value of Digital Measures of Physical Behavior for Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Development

Authors: Shelby L. Bachman, Jennifer M. Blankenship, Michael Busa, Corinna Serviente, Kate Lyden, and Ieuan Clay Abstract Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease and the primary cause of dementia worldwide. Despite the magnitude of AD's impact on patients, caregivers, and society, nearly all AD clinical trials fail. A potential contributor to this high rate of failure is that established clinical outcome assessments fail to capture subtle clinical changes, entail high burden for patients and their caregivers, and ineffectively address the aspects of health deemed important by patients and their caregivers. AD progression is associated with widespread changes in physical behavior that have impacts on the ability to function independently, which is a meaningful aspect of health for patients with AD and important for diagnosis. However, established assessments of functional independence remain underutilized in…

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Publication: Ultra-low-cost mechanical smartphone attachment for no-calibration blood pressure measurement

Authors: Yinan Xuan, Colin Barry, Jessica De Souza, Jessica H Wen, Nick Antipa, Alison A Moore, Edward J Wang Abstract We propose an ultra-low-cost at-home blood pressure monitor that leverages a plastic clip with a spring-loaded mechanism to enable a smartphone with a flash LED and camera to measure blood pressure. Our system, called BPClip, is based on the scientific premise of measuring oscillometry at the fingertip to measure blood pressure. To enable a smartphone to measure the pressure applied to the digital artery, a moveable pinhole projection moves closer to the camera as the user presses down on the clip with increased force. As a user presses on the device with increased force, the spring-loaded mechanism compresses. The size of the pinhole thus encodes the pressure applied to the finger. In conjunction, the brightness…

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Past Webinar – Developing Useful and Usable Health Technologies for Older Adults Through User-centered Design, Pedja Klasnja

https://youtu.be/UnOF4u6fJgA?si=5N88WA9xdH7XPESb Abstract: Designing health technologies for older adults presents unique challenges that extend beyond technical feasibility to encompass behavioral, social, and ethical considerations. In this talk, Dr. Pedja Klasnja explores how user-centered design (UCD) methods can address the “wicked problems” inherent in developing interventions for this population. He illustrates how UCD’s iterative and participatory approach enables teams to co-create solutions that are meaningful and adaptable to older adults’ diverse needs and circumstances. The presentation highlights two key design tools—personas and scenarios—as powerful frameworks for translating user research into actionable design decisions. Personas synthesize data about user groups, motivations, and constraints, helping design teams recognize and accommodate heterogeneity within older adult populations. Scenarios build on this foundation by envisioning how individuals might interact with technologies in real-world contexts, uncovering potential usability issues, privacy concerns, and unintended…

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New Product Launch: MindMics Heart Health System

Cambridge, Massachusetts--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2023) - Today, MindMics, Inc. is pleased to announce it has launched its limited edition MindMics Heart Health System. The system uses patented and clinically validated sound-based technology known as In-ear Infrasonic HemodynographyTM (IH), embedded in everyday earbuds, to detect heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) in real-time, and guides the user through breathing exercises to control their heart and master stress. By using sound to measure key biometrics, MindMics overcomes the challenges faced by wearables that use photoplethysmography (PPG) light technology. Factors like skin tone, skin thickness, perspiration and body mass can severely impact the accuracy of PPG readings. With MindMics, key organs like the heart are monitored through low-frequency acoustical vibrations detected in the ear canal. MindMics' IH delivers HR and HRV in real-time with a…

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