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Transforming health and wellness via temporally-precise mHealth interventions
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TR&D3: Translation

mDOT Center > Research Projects > TR&D3: Translation

Translation of Temporally Precise mHealth via Efficient and Embeddable Privacy-aware Biomarker Implementations

Tinyodom: Hardware-Aware Efficient Neural Inertial Navigation
Authors:
Publication Venue:

ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable, and Ubiquitous Technologies

Publication Date:

July 7, 2022

Keywords:
robotics, embedded systems, inertial odometry, dead-reckoning, sequence-learning, resource-constrained devices, neural architecture search, hardware-in-the-loop, machine-learning, deep-learning, tracking
Abstract:
Deep inertial sequence learning has shown promising odometric resolution over model-based approaches for trajectory estimation in GPS-denied environments. However, existing neural inertial dead-reckoning frameworks are not suitable for real-time deployment on ultra-resource-constrained (URC) devices due to substantial memory, power, and compute bounds. Current deep inertial odometry techniques also suffer from gravity pollution, high-frequency inertial disturbances, varying sensor orientation, heading rate singularity, and failure in altitude estimation. In this paper, we introduce TinyOdom, a framework for training and deploying neural inertial models on URC hardware. TinyOdom exploits hardware and quantization-aware Bayesian neural architecture search (NAS) and a temporal convolutional network (TCN) backbone to train lightweight models targetted towards URC devices. In addition, we propose a magnetometer, physics, and velocity-centric sequence learning formulation robust to preceding inertial perturbations. We also expand 2D sequence learning to 3D using a model-free barometric g-h filter robust to inertial and environmental variations. We evaluate TinyOdom for a wide spectrum of inertial odometry applications and target hardware against competing methods. Specifically, we consider four applications: pedestrian, animal, aerial, and underwater vehicle dead-reckoning. Across different applications, TinyOdom reduces the size of neural inertial models by 31× to 134× with 2.5m to 12m error in 60 seconds, enabling the direct deployment of models on URC devices while still maintaining or exceeding the localization resolution over the state-of-the-art. The proposed barometric filter tracks altitude within ±0.1m and is robust to inertial disturbances and ambient dynamics. Finally, our ablation study shows that the introduced magnetometer, physics, and velocity-centric sequence learning formulation significantly improve localization performance even with notably lightweight models.
TL;DR:

In this paper, we introduce TinyOdom, a framework for training and deploying neural inertial models on URC hardware.

Auritus: An Open-Source Optimization Toolkit for Training & Development of Human Movement Models & Filters Using Earables
Authors:
Publication Venue:

ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies

Publication Date:

July 7, 2022

Keywords:

earable, network architecture search, neural networks, machine learning, datasets, filters, human activity, head-pose, TinyML, optimization, hardware-in-the-loop

Abstract:
Smart ear-worn devices (called earables) are being equipped with various onboard sensors and algorithms, transforming earphones from simple audio transducers to multi-modal interfaces making rich inferences about human motion and vital signals. However, developing sensory applications using earables is currently quite cumbersome with several barriers in the way. First, time-series data from earable sensors incorporate information about physical phenomena in complex settings, requiring machine-learning (ML) models learned from large-scale labeled data. This is challenging in the context of earables because large-scale open-source datasets are missing. Secondly, the small size and compute constraints of earable devices make on-device integration of many existing algorithms for tasks such as human activity and head-pose estimation difficult. To address these challenges, we introduce Auritus, an extendable and open-source optimization toolkit designed to enhance and replicate earable applications. Auritus serves two primary functions. Firstly, Auritus handles data collection, pre-processing, and labeling tasks for creating customized earable datasets using graphical tools. The system includes an open-source dataset with 2.43 million inertial samples related to head and full-body movements, consisting of 34 head poses and 9 activities from 45 volunteers. Secondly, Auritus provides a tightly-integrated hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) optimizer and TinyML interface to develop lightweight and real-time machine-learning (ML) more »
TL;DR:
We introduce Auritus, an extendable and open-source optimization toolkit designed to enhance and replicate earable applications.
THIN-Bayes: Platform-Aware Machine Learning for Low-End IoT Devices
Authors:
Publication Venue:

tinyML Summit

Publication Date:

March 2022

Keywords:

neural networks, edge computing, IoT platforms, AI-based inference, TinyML, activity detection models

Abstract:
Neural networks have been shown to provide rich and complicated inferences from time-series data over first-principle approaches. However, with inference moving to the edge, and IoT platforms shrinking, realizing AI-based inference on-board is challenging. While communication bandwidth, energy budget, and form factor of these platforms have gone down, the workload and complexity of neural networks have skyrocketed, requiring systematic software and tools to guide on-board TinyML implementation. Keeping the challenges in mind, we developed THIN-Bayes, a completely open-source black-box optimization framework for training and deploying ultra-lightweight models on extremely resource-constrained platforms using TensorFlow Lite Micro. THIN-Bayes is designed based on three insights: 1. hardware proxies deviate significantly from true values for low-end microcontrollers, thereby requiring exact hardware metrics; 2. the linear programming formulation stemming from hardware-in-the-loop neural architecture search is not gradient-friendly. 3. the type of model should also be a hyperparameter for low-end microcontrollers. Based on ARM Mango, THIN-Bayes features a tightly integrated ultra-lightweight model zoo and a gradient-free, hardware-in-the-loop, and parallelizable Bayesian neural architecture search framework, receiving hardware metrics directly from the target hardware during optimization. We demonstrate the efficacy of our framework by optimizing neural-inertial navigation models and earable human activity detection models for microcontrollers, two of the most challenging applications of inertial sensors. The inertial-odometry models found by THIN-Bayes are 31-134x smaller than state-of-the-art neural-inertial navigation models, while the activity detection models are 98x smaller and 6% more accurate over the state-of-the-art. THIN-Bayes is an important step towards bringing in challenging AI applications to TinyML platforms.
TL;DR:
We developed THIN-Bayes, a completely open-source black-box optimization framework for training and deploying ultra-lightweight models on extremely resource-constrained platforms using TensorFlow Lite Micro.
Bayesian Sparse Blind Deconvolution Using MCMC Methods Based on Normal-Inverse-Gamma Prior
Authors:
Publication Venue:

IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing

Publication Date:

March 3, 2022

Keywords:
Bayes methods, computational modeling, deconvolution, distortion, probabilistic logic, Monte Carlo methods, estimation
Abstract:

Bayesian estimation methods for sparse blind deconvolution problems conventionally employ Bernoulli-Gaussian (BG) prior for modeling sparse sequences and utilize Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods for the estimation of unknowns. However, the discrete nature of the BG model creates computational bottlenecks, preventing efficient exploration of the probability space even with the recently proposed enhanced sampler schemes. To address this issue, we propose an alternative MCMC method by modeling the sparse sequences using the Normal-Inverse-Gamma (NIG) prior. We derive effective Gibbs samplers for this prior and illustrate that the computational burden associated with the BG model can be eliminated by transferring the problem into a completely continuous-valued framework. In addition to sparsity, we also incorporate time and frequency domain constraints on the convolving sequences. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods via extensive simulations and characterize computational gains relative to the existing methods that utilize BG modeling.

TL;DR:
We propose an alternative MCMC method by modeling the sparse sequences using the Normal-Inverse-Gamma (NIG) prior. We derive effective Gibbs samplers for this prior and illustrate that the computational burden associated with the BG model can be eliminated by transferring the problem into a completely continuous-valued framework.
Machine Learning for Microcontroller-Class Hardware--A Review
Authors:
Publication Venue:

IEEE Sensors Journal

Publication Date:

November 15, 2022

Keywords:

feature projection, Internet of Things, machine learning, microcontrollers, model compression, neural architecture search, neural networks, optimization, sensors, TinyML

Abstract:
The advancements in machine learning opened a new opportunity to bring intelligence to the low-end Internet-of-Things nodes such as microcontrollers. Conventional machine learning deployment has high memory and compute footprint hindering their direct deployment on ultra resource-constrained microcontrollers. This paper highlights the unique requirements of enabling onboard machine learning for microcontroller class devices. Researchers use a specialized model development workflow for resource-limited applications to ensure the compute and latency budget is within the device limits while still maintaining the desired performance. We characterize a closed-loop widely applicable workflow of machine learning model development for microcontroller class devices and show that several classes of applications adopt a specific instance of it. We present both qualitative and numerical insights into different stages of model development by showcasing several use cases. Finally, we identify the open research challenges and unsolved questions demanding careful considerations moving forward.
TL;DR:

This paper highlights the unique requirements of enabling onboard machine learning for microcontroller class devices. We characterize a closed-loopwidely applicable workflow of ML model development for microcontroller-class devices and show that several classes of applications adopt a specific instance of it.

WristPrint: Characterizing User Re-identification Risks from Wrist-Worn Accelerometry Data
Authors:
Publication Venue:

International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR)

Publication Date:

November 13, 2021

Keywords:

privacy, user re-identification, wrist-worn accelerometers

Abstract:
Public release of wrist-worn motion sensor data is growing. They enable and accelerate research in developing new algorithms to passively track daily activities, resulting in improved health and wellness utilities of smartwatches and activity trackers. But, when combined with sensitive attribute inference attack and linkage attack via re-identification of the same user in multiple datasets, undisclosed sensitive attributes can be revealed to unintended organizations with potentially adverse consequences for unsuspecting data contributing users. To guide both users and data collecting researchers, we characterize the re-identification risks inherent in motion sensor data collected from wrist-worn devices in users’ natural environment. For this purpose, we use an open-set formulation, train a deep learning architecture with a new loss function, and apply our model to a new data set consisting of 10 weeks of daily sensor wearing by 353 users. We find that re-identification risk increases with an increase in the activity intensity. On average, such risk is 96% for a user when sharing a full day of sensor data.
TL;DR:

We characterize the re-identification risks inherent in motion sensor data collected from wrist-worn devices in users’ natural environment. We use an open-set formulation, train a deep learning architecture with a new loss function, and apply our model to a new data set.

Aerogel: Lightweight Access Control Framework for WebAssembly-Based Bare-Metal IoT Devices
Authors:
Publication Venue:

IEEE/ACM Symposium on Edge Computing (SEC)

Publication Date:

December 14, 2021

Keywords:

software security engineering, mobile platform security

Abstract:

Application latency requirements, privacy, and security concerns have naturally pushed computing onto smartphone and IoT devices in a decentralized manner. In response to these demands, researchers have developed micro-runtimes for WebAssembly (Wasm) on IoT devices to enable streaming applications to a runtime that can run the target binaries that are independent of the device. However, the migration of Wasm and the associated security research has neglected the urgent needs of access control on bare-metal, memory management unit (MMU)-less IoT devices that are sensing and actuating upon the physical environment. This paper presents Aerogel, an access control framework that addresses security gaps between the bare-metal IoT devices and the Wasm execution environment concerning access control for sensors, actuators, processor energy usage, and memory usage. In particular, we treat the runtime as a multi-tenant environment, where each Wasm-based application is a tenant. We leverage the inherent sandboxing mechanisms of Wasm to enforce the access control policies to sensors and actuators without trusting the bare-metal operating system. We evaluate our approach on a representative IoT development board: a cortexM4 based development board (nRF52840). Our results show that Aerogel can effectively enforce compute resource and peripheral access control policies while introducing as little as 0.19% to 1.04% runtime overhead and consuming only 18.8% to 45.9% extra energy.

TL;DR:

This paper presents Aerogel, an access control framework that addresses security gaps between the bare-metal IoT devices and the Wasm execution environment concerning access control for sensors, actuators, processor energy usage, and memory usage.

Tinyodom: Hardware-Aware Efficient Neural Inertial Navigation
Authors:
Publication Venue:

ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable, and Ubiquitous Technologies

Publication Date:

July 7, 2022

License:
Languages:

C++

C

Jupyter Notebook

Python

Auritus: An Open-Source Optimization Toolkit for Training & Development of Human Movement Models & Filters Using Earables
Authors:
Publication Venue:

ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies

Publication Date:

July 7, 2022

License:
Languages:

C++

C

Python

MATLAB

Jupyter Notebook

THIN-Bayes: Platform-Aware Machine Learning for Low-End IoT Devices

https://github.com/ARM-software/mango/tree/main/examples/THIN-Bayes

Authors:
Publication Venue:

tinyML Summit

Publication Date:

March 2022

License:
Languages:

Python

Bayesian Sparse Blind Deconvolution Using MCMC Methods Based on Normal-Inverse-Gamma Prior


https://github.com/burakcivek/BayesianSparseBlindDeconvolution
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Authors:
Publication Venue:

IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing

Publication Date:

March 3, 2022

Language:

MATLAB

WristPrint: Characterizing User Re-identification Risks from Wrist-Worn Accelerometry Data
Auritus: An Open-Source Optimization Toolkit for Training & Development of Human Movement Models & Filters Using Earables

The Auritus dataset has 2.43 million inertial samples related to head and full-body movements, consisting of 34 head poses and 9 activities from 45 volunteers.  There are three main folders in the dataset, namely Activity DetectionSimple Head Pose and Complex Head Pose. It also contains physiological information about participants in the file Participant_Info.csv, target information for simple and complex head pose in the file HP_target_info.csv, and the IRB approval in the file IRB_Approval.pdf. Simple head pose corresponds to head movements from a origin marker to a target marker and back. Complex head pose corresponds to head movements from a origin marker to target marker A, target marker A to target marker B, and target marker B to origin. 

 

Activity Detection

Complex Head Pose

Simple Head Pose

Authors:
Publication Venue:

ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies

Publication Date:

July 7, 2022

License:
Vigorous research activity in mHealth has resulted in an ever-growing list of physiological and behavioral markers. However, translation of these biomarkers into real time intervention lagged behind the observational research studies that led to their development due to computation, storage, and communication bottlenecks faced by wearables and smartphone platforms. Further, the next generation of wearables is emerging with the ability to sample data from multiple sensors at rates several orders of magnitude higher than current-generation devices, exacerbating the computational and communication bottleneck. They can image structure, motion, and function, to provide visibility into physiology previously possible only in clinics.

Traditionally, such imaging sensors use post-processing algorithms for feature identification, co-registration, alignment and enhancement. However, high frequency-high volume imaging data from wearables cannot be transported to cloud computing for post-processing. Finally, researchers have shown that the high-dimensionality sensor data needed to compute biomarkers present immense privacy risks. Advances in machine learning are leading to an ever-growing list of surprising inferences about user identity and activities that can be made from seemingly innocuous sensors, particularly when data are captured over long durations. Simplistic methods such as stripping personally identifiable information and addition of noise that focus on anonymizing the data have been ineffective for mHealth, both from privacy and utility perspectives, particularly with the availability of vast amounts of side information (e.g. metadata), computational power, and advanced algorithms.

To address these growing challenges, we propose a hierarchical computing framework that reduces the data into minimal modular abstractions called Micromarkers computed at the edge devices. Micromarkers can be used directly as features in new biomarker inferences or can be adapted to support legacy algorithms. TR&D3 is developing hardware, software, and computational techniques to implement privacy-aware, efficient, and embedded intelligence support into wearables. They will enable continuous, high-throughput, low latency biomarker captures across wearable, mobile, and cloud platforms to support large scale and long-term research studies, and eventual real-life rollout.

Tushar Agarwal, PhD

Senior ML Researcher


Siddharth Baskar, PhD

Sr. Hardware Engineer


Swapnil Sayan Saha, PhD

Algorithm Dev. Engineer


Md Azim Ullah, PhD

Applied Scientist


  1. Civek, Burak C., and Emre Ertin. "Bayesian Sparse Blind Deconvolution Using MCMC Methods Based on Normal-Inverse-Gamma Prior." IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 70 (2022): 1256-1269. NIHMS1839071.
  2. Civek, Burak C., and Emre Ertin.”MCMC Methods for Estimation of Thoracic Fluid Levels using UWB Radar,." Poster at IEEE BHI-BSN 2022. 
  3. Saleheen, Nazir, Md Azim Ullah, Supriyo Chakraborty, Deniz S. Ones, Mani Srivastava, and Santosh Kumar. "WristPrint: Characterizing User Re-identification Risks from Wrist-worn Accelerometry Data." In Proceedings of the 2021 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 2807-2823. 2021. NIHMS1839082
  4. Liu, Renju, Luis Garcia, and Mani Srivastava. "Aerogel: Lightweight Access Control Framework for WebAssembly-Based Bare-Metal IoT Devices." In 2021 IEEE/ACM Symposium on Edge Computing (SEC), pp. 94-105. IEEE, 2021. NIHMS1839084
  5. Saha, Swapnil Sayan, Sandeep Singh Sandha, Luis Antonio Garcia, and Mani Srivastava. "Tinyodom: Hardware-aware efficient neural inertial navigation." Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies 6, no. 2 (2022): 1-32. NIHMS1839164
  6. Saha, Swapnil Sayan, Sandeep Singh Sandha, Siyou Pei, Vivek Jain, Ziqi Wang, Yuchen Li, Ankur Sarker, and Mani Srivastava. "Auritus: An Open-Source Optimization Toolkit for Training and Development of Human Movement Models and Filters Using Earables." Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies 6, no. 2 (2022): 1-34. NIHMS1839165
  7. Saha, Swapnil Sayan, Sandeep Singh Sandha, and Mani Srivastava. "Machine Learning for Microcontroller-Class Hardware--A Review." arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.14550 (2022). Accepted for IEEE J. Sensors ’22.
  8. Saha, Swapnil Sayan, Sandeep Singh Sandha, Mohit Aggarwal, and Mani Srivastava. "THIN-Bayes: Platform-Aware Machine Learning for Low-End IoT Devices." Poster at the tinyML Summit 2022.
  1. S.S. Saha, S.S. Sandha, S. Pei, V. Jain, Z. Wang, Y. Li, A. Sarker, M. Srivastava. Workshop: Excerpt of Auritus: An Open-Source Optimization Toolkit for Training and Development of Human Movement Models and Filters Using Earables. ACM EarComp Workshop, 2022. Cambridge, UK. 9/15/2022.

Santosh Kumar, PhD

Lead PI, Center Director, TR&D1, TR&D2, TR&D3


Yuyi Chang

Doctoral Student


Sugavanam Nithin

Doctoral Student


Akash Sing Deep

Doctoral Student


Brian Wang

Doctoral Student


Soumobrata Ghosh

Doctoral Student


Devan Mallory

Undergraduate Student