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REVIEW article
Front. Electron.
Sec. Bioelectronics
Volume 6 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/felec.2025.1503425
Auricular Bioelectronic Devices for Health, Medicine, and Human-Computer Interfaces
Provisionally accepted- University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, United States
Recent advances in manufacturing of flexible and conformable microelectronics have opened opportunities for health monitoring and disease treatment. Other material engineering advances, such as the development of conductive, skin-like hydrogels, liquid metals, electric textiles, and piezoelectric films provide safe and comfortable means of interfacing with the human body. Together, these advances have enabled the design and engineering of bioelectronic devices with integrated multimodal sensing and stimulation capabilities to be worn nearly anywhere on the body. Of particular interest here, the external ear (auricle) offers a unique opportunity to design scalable bioelectronic devices with a high degree of usability and familiarity given the broad use of headphones. This review article discusses recent design and engineering advances in the development of auricular bioelectronic devices capable of physiological and biochemical sensing, cognitive monitoring, targeted neuromodulation, and control for humancomputer interactions. Stemming from this scalable foundation, there will be increased growth and competition in research and engineering to advance auricular bioelectronics. This activity will lead to increased adoption of these smart headphone-style devices by patients and consumers for tracking health, treating medical conditions, and enhancing human-computer interactions.
Keywords: bioelectronics, Flexible electronics, human interface, Neuromodulation, Sensors
Received: 03 Oct 2024; Accepted: 17 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tyler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
William J Tyler, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.