This analysis was accepted by and acquired a Greatest Paper Award throughout ACM Designing Interactive Techniques (DIS) 2023, which is devoted to advancing the sphere of user-centered system design.

Headphones are historically used to offer and handle audio experiences by means of bodily controls and a variety of sensors. Nonetheless, these controls and sensors have remained confined to audio enter and output performance, similar to adjusting the quantity or muting the microphone. Think about if headphones may transcend their function as mere audio gadgets. 

As a result of headphones rank among the many hottest wearables out there, we’ve an thrilling alternative to develop their capabilities by means of integrating current sensors with supplementary ones to allow all kinds of experiences that transcend conventional audio management. In our paper, “Past Audio: In direction of a Design Area of Headphones as a Web site for Interplay and Sensing,” we share a imaginative and prescient that explores this potential.

Through the use of sensors similar to microphones, proximity sensors, movement sensors, inertial measurement models (IMUs), and LiDARs, headphone designers can discover new avenues of enter and interplay. The truth that headphones are worn on an individual’s head permits for a variety of functions, similar to following head actions, physique postures, and hand gestures. Moreover, as wearable gadgets, headphones have the potential to offer wearers with context-rich info and allow extra intuitive and immersive interactions with their gadgets and setting past conventional button-based controls.

Potential situations for sensor-enhanced headphones 

To discover this idea additional, we suggest augmenting headphones with extra sensors and enter widgets. These embody: 

• IMUs to sense head orientation
• Swappable units of enter controls  
• A spread-sensing LiDAR that permits the sensing of hand gestures

By incorporating these capabilities, we envision a variety of functions the place headphone enter acts as a bridge between the particular person carrying it and their setting and allow extra environment friendly and context-aware interactions amongst a number of gadgets and duties. For instance, a headphone may help folks with functions like video video games or assist handle interruptions throughout a video name.  

Let’s discover some situations for example the potential of our headphone design idea. Think about an individual engaged in a video name with teammates when they’re all of a sudden interrupted by a colleague who approaches in particular person. On this scenario, our headphones can be geared up to detect contextual cues, similar to when the wearer rotates their head away from a video name, signaling a shift in consideration. In response, the headphones may mechanically blur the video feed and mute the microphone to guard the wearer’s privateness, as proven in Determine 1. This function may additionally talk to different individuals that the wearer is quickly engaged in one other dialog or exercise. When the wearer returns their consideration to the decision, the system removes the blur and reactivates the microphone.

In one other privacy-focused situation, think about an individual concurrently conversing with a number of teammates in separate video name channels. Our headphone design permits the wearer to regulate to whom their speech is directed by merely their meant viewers, as proven in Determine 2. This directed speech interplay can lengthen past video calls and be utilized to different contexts, similar to sending focused voice instructions to teammates in a multiplayer online game.

In our paper, we additionally show how socially recognizable gestures can introduce new types of audio-visual management as a substitute of relying solely on on-screen controls. For instance, wearers may work together with media by means of gestural actions, similar to cupping their ear in direction of the audio supply to extend the quantity whereas concurrently decreasing ambient noise, as proven in Determine 3. These gestures, ingrained in social and cultural contexts, can function each management mechanisms and nonverbal communication indicators.

Moreover, we are able to estimate the wearer’s head gaze by means of using an IMU. When mixed with the bodily location of computing gadgets within the wearer’s neighborhood, it opens up prospects for seamless interactions throughout a number of gadgets. As an example, throughout a video name, the wearer can share the display of the gadget they’re actively specializing in. On this situation, the wearer shifts their consideration from an exterior monitor to a pill gadget. Despite the fact that this pill shouldn’t be immediately related to the primary laptop computer, our system easily transitions the display sharing for the wearer’s viewers within the video name, as proven in Determine 4.

Lastly, in our paper we additionally present using embodied interactions, the place the wearer’s physique actions serve to animate a digital illustration of themselves, similar to an avatar in a video name, as proven in Determine 5. This function may also be carried out as a gameplay mechanism. Take a racing sport as an illustration, the place the wearer’s physique actions may management the car’s steering, proven on the left in Determine 6. To increase this functionality, these actions may allow a wearer to peek round obstacles in any first-person sport, enhancing the immersion and gameplay expertise, proven on the proper in Determine 6.

Design house for headphone interactions 

We outline a design house for interactive headphones by means of an exploration of two distinct ideas, which we talk about in depth in our paper.

First, we have a look at the kind of enter gesture for the interplay, which we additional classify into three classes. The gestural enter from the wearer may fall below a number of of those classes, which we define in additional element under and illustrate in Determine 7.

• Contact-based gestures that contain tangible inputs on the headphones, similar to buttons or knobs, requiring bodily contact by the wearer
• Mid-air gestures, which the wearer makes with their palms in shut proximity to the headphones, detected by means of LiDAR know-how
• Head orientation, indicating the course of the wearer’s consideration

The second manner that we outline the design house is thru the context inside which the wearer executes the motion. Right here, design concerns for sensor-enhanced headphones transcend consumer intentionality and noticed movement. Context-awareness permits these headphones to know the wearer’s actions, the functions they’re engaged with, and the gadgets of their neighborhood, as illustrated in Determine 8. This understanding permits the headphones to offer customized experiences and seamlessly combine with the wearer’s setting. The 4 classes that outline this context-awareness are comprised of the next: 

• Context-free actions, which produce related outcomes whatever the energetic utility, the wearer’s exercise, or the social or bodily setting.  
• Context that’s outlined by the appliance with which the wearer is interacting. For instance, are they listening to music, on a video name, or watching a film?  
• Context that’s outlined by the wearer’s physique. For instance, is the wearer’s gesture near a physique half that has an related that means? Eyes may relate to visible capabilities, ears to audio enter, and the mouth to audio output. 
• Context that’s outlined by the wearer’s setting. For instance, are there different gadgets or folks across the wearer with whom they may need to work together?

Wanting forward: Increasing the chances of HCI with on a regular basis wearables  

Sensor-enhanced headphones provide a promising avenue for designers to create immersive and context-aware consumer experiences. By incorporating sensors, these headphones can seize refined consumer behaviors, facilitating seamless interactions and enhancing the wearer’s total expertise.  

From safeguarding privateness to offering intuitive management mechanisms, the potential functions for sensor-enhanced headphones are huge and thrilling. This exploration with headphones scratches the floor of what context-aware wearable know-how can empower its wearers to attain. Think about the multitude of wearables we use daily that would profit from integrating related sensing and interplay capabilities into these gadgets. For instance, think about a watch that may monitor your hand actions and detect gestures. By enabling communication between sensor-enhanced wearables, we are able to set up a cohesive ecosystem for human-computer interplay that spans throughout functions, gadgets, and social contexts.