Emerging Devices for Digital Biomarkers

MobiSys 2022 Workshop on
Emerging Devices for Digital Biomarkers

Among its many definitions, digital health entails the collection of digital biomarkers that predict the incidence of diseases and health conditions. Digital biomarkers are often collected from sensors that capture one of three types of information: (i) physiological information like heart rate and stress level, (ii) contextual information like location and proximity, and (iii) behavioral information like motion and speech.

Digital health is often synonymous with devices like smartphones and wearables; however, sensors can be embedded in other technologies, each with their own opportunities. Headworn devices like smart glasses can monitor phenomena related to the eyes and nose. Virtual reality headsets can provide similar opportunities while allowing researchers to explore physiological responses to visual stimuli. Skin-worn sensors and smart clothing can be placed optimally on a person’s body to detect limb-specific phenomena. Brain-computer interfaces provide a new gateway into people’s cognitive and sensory-motor functions. Other emerging devices may include distributed sensors in the home (e.g., smart speakers, smart toilets), contact lenses, and other body modifications.

These technologies also come with unique challenges. The hardware must be designed in a way that is unobtrusive enough to be satisfactory for everyday wear. Providing a slim form factor limits the data storage, battery power, and computational capabilities available to these devices. Applications involving body sensor networks require architectures and protocols that are able to coordinate between multiple nodes in an effective manner. Finally, the unique positioning of these sensors and their susceptibility to phenomena during everyday living can make it more challenging to extract useful digital biomarkers.

The Workshop on Emerging Devices for Digital Biomarkers will offer a unified forum that brings together academics, industry researchers, and medical practitioners together to discuss cutting-edge innovation in digital health. The workshop aims to facilitate a systematic discussion among experts from domains such as mobile sensing, systems, hardware design, machine learning, and medicine. The specific aims of the workshop include: (i) to identify novel sensing opportunities with devices that are currently ubiquitous, most notably smartphones and smartwatches; (ii) to identify opportunities in digital health involving emerging devices that are not so commonplace, such as headsets and on-body sensors; and (iii) to identify challenges and solutions related to the passive collection of digital biomarkers in areas like privacy, visualization, and computational efficiency.

Past Workshops

Workshop on the Future of Digital Biomarkers @ MobiSys 2021