08 October 2025
New research published in MobiSys has described the development of prototype glasses for monitoring blink dynamics.
The BlinkWise device, which was created by University of Pennsylvania researchers, has the potential to provide insight on both an individual’s cognitive state and their ocular health.
An evaluation of the device capturing 18,000 blink measurements among 20 participants found that BlinkWise had “high accuracy in capturing subtle blink dynamics at millisecond resolution.”
The device uses radio signals to track eyelid movements – a method that is less energy-intensive than existing approaches to capturing blinking patterns.
“While highspeed cameras can provide detailed measurements at hundreds of frames per second, they generate massive amounts of redundant data and consume significant power,” the authors explained.
“Radio frequency signals, in contrast, can capture subtle eyelid movements with dramatically less data overhead while being inherently privacy-preserving,” they added.
Mingmin Zhao, assistant professor in computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania, highlighted: “Because BlinkWise brings together low-power radio-wave sensing and edge artificial intelligence, it can sense more efficiently and run advanced health monitoring directly on the glasses with less energy, less space and less data than existing ‘smart’ eyewear.”
Potential applications of the technology include monitoring drowsiness, mental workload and dry eye disease.
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