AI at the eyelid: Glasses that track health through your blinks
Researchers at Penn Engineering have developed BlinkWise, an AI-powered system that uses radio waves to monitor blinks and eye health.
2 min. read
Penn researchers have developed a groundbreaking AI-powered device that turns ordinary glasses into a smart, energy-efficient health monitor by watching the eye blink.
Penn Engineering graduate student Dongyin Hu models BlinkWise, an AI-powered system that uses radio waves to monitor blinks and eye health.
(Image: Sylvia Zhang)
The device, called BlinkWise, uses radio signals to track eyelid movements with unprecedented detail, all while preserving privacy and using minimal power. The technology opens doors for assessing fatigue, mental workload and eye-related health issues in real-world settings, from long-haul trucking to everyday office work.
“Because BlinkWise brings together low-power radio-wave sensing and edge AI, it can sense more efficiently and run advanced health monitoring directly on the glasses with less energy, less space and less data than existing ‘smart’ eyewear,” says Mingmin Zhao, assistant professor in computer and information science (CIS) at Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, and one of the lead researchers on the project.
“Blinking is something we do thousands of times per day without thinking, and yet it reflects so much about our health,” says Lama Al-Aswad, Irene Heinz Given and John La Porte Given Research Professor of Ophthalmology II and a collaborator on the project. “Because it’s noninvasive and easy to monitor, blink analysis could become a powerful tool for managing chronic conditions and identifying cognitive changes early.”
These blink dynamics unfold in milliseconds. Until now, tracking blink dynamics at this resolution demanded stationary, high-speed cameras and specialized equipment.
“Previous systems required a lab setup,” says Dongyin Hu, the lead author of a paper the team presented at MobiSys 2025 and a doctoral student in CIS. “BlinkWise just clips onto your glasses, so you can monitor blinks anywhere.”
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