Nokia Bell Labs announced OmniBuds, world’s first sensory “earable”

OmniBuds are the world’s first sensory wearable—or better yet, “earable.” That’s no surprise, given that the company behind OmniBuds is none other than Nokia, specifically Nokia Bell Labs. These earbuds are designed to continuously monitor all five vital signs: heart rate, step count, temperature, blood oxygen levels, and even blood pressure. They use a multi-modal technique that measures the time difference between the S1 heart sound (detected by the in-ear microphone) and the PPG upstroke, known as vascular transit time (VTT). Additionally, these earbuds offer state-of-the-art augmented hearing capabilities, which was their initial function.

Equipped with multiple biosensors and onboard computation, OmniBuds are powered by a machine learning accelerator, all running on a real-time operating system (RTOS). Impressively, they can operate for up to six hours on a single charge. A dedicated research app will accompany the earbuds, available for both Android and iOS. This app will allow users easy access to all collected data in one place.

While many Nokia fans might hope for a more consumer-friendly version of these earbuds, OmniBuds are designed as a research-focused platform. They aim to advance earable computing research, taking insights from the lab into real-world applications.

OmniBuds were developed by the team at Nokia Bell Labs in Cambridge, and their market entry will be supported by Cambridge Future Tech, a company specializing in identifying and advancing high-potential projects. So far they have launched a dedicated website where you can find more info about the buds and research.

If you’d like to delve deeper into the technical and scientific foundations of OmniBuds, a detailed paper by Montanari et al. (2024) is available for download here.

It looks like Nokia is making a comeback in the tech scene! 😊

 

Via Suomimobiili