Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/92919045446?pwd=BiTw5OrkcWt5MYCZdmTbYSJIyeX8Xy.1

Abstract: Respiration rate – the number of breaths per minute, is a key physiological signal that reflects a person’s health and wellbeing. Yet, unlike heart rate or blood pressure, it remains one of the least monitored vital signs in both clinical and everyday settings. In this talk, I will present a series of systems that leverage affordable sensing technologies to capture and interpret respiratory activity across different contexts. JoulesEye employs thermal imaging to monitor breathing during physical activities such as running and cycling, enabling accurate estimation of energy expenditure comparable to gold-standard indirect calorimetry and surpassing popular smartwatches. ApneaEye extends this idea to sleep monitoring, using thermal imaging to non-invasively detect breathing disruptions indicative of sleep apnea, a condition affecting over a billion people worldwide. Finally, SpiroMask explores the potential of everyday face masks as respiratory health wearables by embedding miniature audio sensors to measure breathing patterns. Validated against a clinical spirometer under American Thoracic Society standards, it demonstrates strong agreement and scalability for community-level lung health screening.

I will conclude with a discussion of my future research direction, using commodity devices not only for health sensing but also for personalized intervention and feedback to promote long-term wellbeing.

About the Speaker: Rishiraj Adhikary completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, where he specialized in Ubiquitous Computing and Health Sensing. His research focuses on developing sensing systems that leverage everyday devices to monitor and improve human health and wellbeing. His work has appeared in leading venues such as ACM IMWUT, ACM CSCW, ACM HEALTH, and UbiComp/ISWC. He received the Medal for Commendation for Outstanding Research from IIT Gandhinagar during its 14th Convocation, was a finalist for the UbiComp Gaetano Borriello Student Award (2023), and is a recipient of both the Fulbright Fellowship (2022) and the Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF). He is currently working as a Research Data Scientist at Enercent Technologies, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries.

We look forward to your active participation.