Dual-Electrodes PMUTs on Glasses for Wearable Human Blink Monitoring

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Materials Science
• Sensor Technology

Background:

• Blink monitoring is crucial for safety, medical applications, and intelligent systems.
• Conventional eye-tracking methods face limitations in adaptability, comfort, and safety.
• MEMS-based ultrasonic technology offers non-contact monitoring with enhanced privacy and security but requires specialized circuits and fabrication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel dual-electrode piezoelectric micro-mechanical ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) for blink monitoring.
• To integrate the PMUT into a glasses device for real-time blink activity detection.
• To overcome limitations of existing eye monitoring technologies.

Main Methods:

• Design and fabrication of an aluminum nitride (AlN) based dual-electrode PMUT.
• Integration of the PMUT into a wearable glasses device.
• Utilizing time-of-flight (TOF) pulse-echo technology and dynamic unsupervised learning for blink state identification.

Main Results:

• Successful real-time blink activity monitoring using the integrated glasses device.
• Demonstration of blink state identification via TOF and unsupervised learning.
• Fabrication achieved using cost-effective standard multi-user MEMS processes.

Conclusions:

• The proposed AlN-based PMUT in a glasses device provides a comfortable, secure, and reliable solution for blink monitoring.
• The system leverages advanced sensing and learning techniques for accurate blink detection.
• This approach offers significant advantages over traditional eye monitoring methods.