I-Corps: Translation Potential of an electroacoustic sensing technology using speakers as sensors

Award ID: 2628899

This I-Corps project is based on the development of a new sensing technology that transforms conventional audio speakers into devices capable of simultaneously generating sound and sensing their surrounding environment. Many products across healthcare, consumer electronics, and industrial systems depend on dedicated sensors to monitor physical and environmental conditions, which increase product cost, design complexity, power consumption, and manufacturing requirements. As intelligent devices become more common, manufacturers need affordable, scalable, and privacy-preserving sensing solutions that can be integrated into existing products without additional hardware. The proposed technology addresses this need by enabling speakers already embedded in many devices to perform sensing functions through software and signal processing rather than dedicated sensing components. The initial commercial opportunity is in hearing-health devices, where reliable verification of device placement and acoustic coupling is critical. However, the underlying sensing platform has broader applications in consumer electronics, industrial monitoring, and other intelligent systems. Successful commercialization may reduce product cost, improve sensing accessibility, and enable the next generation of intelligent devices. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of an impedance-based electroacoustic sensing platform that repurposes conventional speakers as concurrent actuators and sensors. This technology measures changes in a speaker's electrical impedance caused by interactions with its surrounding acoustic environment and applies machine learning algorithms to infer physical and environmental conditions. Prior research has demonstrated that impedance signatures collected from commercially available speakers can reliably distinguish acoustic loading conditions, including insertion depth, sealing quality, and environmental variations, without requiring dedicated sensing hardware. Where conventional sensing approaches rely on additional microphones or specialized sensors, this technology leverages the inherent electroacoustic coupling of existing speakers to provide robust sensing while reducing hardware complexity, cost, and power consumption. This may lead to the improvement of electroacoustic system design by eliminating the traditional separation between actuators and sensors. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Ruth Shuman