Funding Source
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Project Period
10/1/16 – 9/30/23
Principal Investigator
David Kotz, PhD (Dartmouth College)
Other Project Staff
Kelly Caine, PhD (Clemson); Ryan Halter, PhD; Kofi Odame, PhD; Jacob Sorber, PhD (Clemson), Xing-Dong Yang, PhD
Project Summary
Obesity remains one of the most pressing health challenges, and the science of obesity indicates that diet is a major factor in behavioral change to encourage weight loss and healthy weight management. In the Auracle project we plan to develop a digital earpiece – small and comfortable enough to wear in or behind the ear – that can sense and detect actions such as eating, drinking, smoking, and speaking, and measure physiological stress. The project’s long-term vision is that computational jewelry like this earpiece will enable behavioral-health researchers to better understand health-related behaviors and, subsequently, to support the validation and deployment of effective behavioral-health interventions that promote healthy diet and behavior.