Helmholtz Doctoral Prize for KIT Computer Scientist

Helmholtz recently awarded the doctoral prize to eleven researchers. Every year, this prize is awarded to the best and most original doctoral theses.

Among them is Tobias Röddiger, who completed his dissertation "Earables: Wearable Computing on the Ears" at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). In his work, he focused on earables, i.e. wearables that are worn on or in the ear. By equipping headphones with various sensors, their functionality can be expanded. His research has shown that earables can be used for breathing and eye monitoring, cough detection, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and invisible human-computer interaction. "Through my research, headphones are becoming multifunctional everyday helpers for Dr. Tobias health monitoring and enhancing human capabilities," says the KIT alumnus, who is now working as a post-doc at TECO, summarizing his work.

Tobias Röddiger at the award ceremony with Otmar D. Wiestler, Helmholtz Association (Image: David Marschalsky)

As part of his dissertation, Röddiger developed the "OpenEarable" prototype, a headphone equipped with various sensors. This can serve as a platform for further research in the field of earables.

Tobias Röddiger completed his doctorate under Prof. Dr. Michael Beigl in the Pervasive Computing Systems group (TECO). He has already been awarded the BLANC & FISCHER Innovation Prizefor his doctoral thesis in November 2023 .