News & Events

Past Webinar – Comprehending Human Behaviors using Wireless Sensing on Everyday Wearables, Cheng Zhang

https://youtu.be/glSoPDySruI?si=3vaFP2iwT9eKCDN2 Abstract: Despite the rapid advancement of AI, computers' ability to comprehend human behaviors remains limited. For instance, commodity computing devices still face challenges in understanding even basic human daily activities such as eating and drinking. The primary obstacle lies in the absence of suitable sensing technologies capable of capturing and interpreting high-quality behavioral data in everyday settings. In this presentation, I will share my research on the development of everyday wearables that are minimally-obtrusive, privacy-aware, and low-power, yet capable of capturing and comprehending various body movements and poses that humans employ in their everyday activities. First, I will show how these sensing technologies can empower various everyday wearable form factors, including wristbands, necklaces, earphones, headphones, and glasses, to track essential body postures, such as facial expressions, gaze, finger poses, limb poses, as well as…

Continue ReadingPast Webinar – Comprehending Human Behaviors using Wireless Sensing on Everyday Wearables, Cheng Zhang

Grant Funding: NIA R01 (R01AG089169)

Title: Neural mechanisms of gait disturbances as individualized digital biomarker trajectories in preclinical dementia Public Health Relevance Statement: In this project, the research team uncovers the neural mechanisms of gait and mobility disturbances in preclinical dementia and identifies trackable individualized digital biomarkers (from videos). They evaluate the specificity and sensitivity of these gait-based biomarkers and relate those to neural mechanisms and clinical phenotypes. By leveraging these identified markers, they can monitor the disease's progression, potentially minimizing or even replacing the demand for expensive neuropsychological or neuroimaging evaluations. Source: R01AG089169 (NIH RePORTER)

Continue ReadingGrant Funding: NIA R01 (R01AG089169)

Award: Recognition as most comprehensive monitoring system for older adults from National Council on Aging (2025)

Experts from the National Council on Aging (NCOA) have selected the Top 5 Home Monitoring Systems for older adults for the year 2025 and Livindi has been named the most comprehensive solution currently on the market. The pros of their solution were noted as the affordability, the variety of sensors available (including bed sensor and activity tracker), accessibility to telehealth, the favorable return policy (30-day return window), connectivity options (both Wi-Fi and cellular), and easy self installation. What they said: "The Livindi home monitoring system works well for people who want to participate in their own health monitoring, as some of the devices, like the weight scale and blood pressure monitor, require users to take their own daily measurements. That said, many of the sensors, like the motion and door monitors, work passively in the…

Continue ReadingAward: Recognition as most comprehensive monitoring system for older adults from National Council on Aging (2025)

Award: Don Norman Design Award 2024 – Special Recognition

Billion Labs Inc was honored with a DNDA24 Special Recognition for "Reducing Barrier to Access Hypertension Screening Globally." What they said: Billion Labs Inc. is a startup company whose mission is to transform the billions of smartphones in everyone’s pocket to screen for critical health conditions like all-cause mortality, hypertension, diabetes, and more with nothing but a download of an app, making health monitoring affordable and accessible to everyone. Their solution, Vibro, is a smartphone app that requires no extra devices to measure blood pressure. The ultimate goal is to provide affordable blood pressure monitoring by leveraging the existing smartphone infrastructure. Even if an individual does not own a smartphone personally, access can be bootstrapped through family and community support, reducing barriers of accessing hypertension screening. Through iterative design process, the team continues to refine…

Continue ReadingAward: Don Norman Design Award 2024 – Special Recognition

Grant Funding: NIA SBIR Phase I (R43AG090129)

Title: AVA AI Video-Based Mobile Application for Reliable, Accessible, and Low-Cost Fall Risk Assessments of Older Adults Public Health Relevance Statement: This project presents AVA, a video-based mobile app for at-home fall risk assessment of older adults, only using a smartphone to enable a much higher access, low-cost solution with full privacy protection. AVA empowers caregivers to assess the gait, balance, and strength of their older adults independently without the direct supervision of healthcare professionals. The Phase I study focuses on validating AVA's AI-based assessment technology and its usability in diverse home and independent living settings which can lead to revolutionizing current fall risk assessment practices. Source: R43AG090129 (NIH RePORTER)

Continue ReadingGrant Funding: NIA SBIR Phase I (R43AG090129)

Past Webinar – Sustainable Ear-Worn Systems for HCI and BCI: Design, Development, and Deployment, VP Nguyen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUKKp4Fazno&t=3s&pp=ygUNYTIgY29sbGVjdGl2ZQ%3D%3D Abstract: This talk introduces curiosity-driven research that explores science and technology to build the next generation of ear-worn computer systems that are robust, sustainable, cost-effective, low-burden, and socially acceptable, thereby unlocking new applications in human-computer interaction and brain-computer interface. Yet, the development of these systems brings significant challenges, demanding a rethinking of hardware and software frameworks, advanced ML algorithms, and significant interdisciplinary efforts. I will present our approaches to fill the gaps and build practical ear-worn computers, highlighted by motivating applications our lab has worked on: interactive computing and disease monitoring and intervention. Additionally, I will share insights gained from deploying these systems in various real-world settings and discuss future research directions.  Biography: VP Nguyen, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science at the Manning College of Information & Computer Science at UMass Amherst…

Continue ReadingPast Webinar – Sustainable Ear-Worn Systems for HCI and BCI: Design, Development, and Deployment, VP Nguyen