Abstract
The inertial measurement units (IMUs) that smart glasses use to detect open-or-closed status consume valuable space. This disclosure describes techniques to determine the open or closed status of smart glasses by using acoustic components such as microphone, speaker, etc. that are already present in smart glasses. Per the techniques, speakers located on both temples are caused to emit a pulsed sound inaudible to the human ear, e.g., an ultrasonic sound. A microphone in the nose pad picks up the specific frequency emitted by the speakers. When the temples are open and the device is worn on the head, the amplitude of the sound received by the nose pad microphone is low. Conversely, when the temples are closed, the speakers on the temples are close to the nose pad microphone, and the amplitude of the ultrasonic pulses received by the microphone is high. The open or closed status of the smart glasses can therefore be determined by thresholding the microphone signal appropriately. The space freed up by eliminating IMUs can be re-allocated to other valuable hardware, e.g., a larger battery.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Lee, Jay, "Acoustic Sensing for Temple-Position Detection in Smart Glasses", Technical Disclosure Commons, (November 12, 2025)
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/8862