# CoughTrigger: Earbuds IMU Based Cough Detection Activator Using An Energy-efficient Sensitivity-prioritized Time Series Classifier

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.04185 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.04185/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 2 of its 13 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Nov 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Data Augmentation of Wearable Sensor Data for Parkinson's Disease Monitoring using Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.00527/) (2017)
- [A Novel Multi-Centroid Template Matching Algorithm and Its Application to Cough Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.00630/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [PRIMUS: Pretraining IMU Encoders with Multimodal Self-Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.15127/) (2024)
- [WatchHAR: Real-time On-device Human Activity Recognition System for Smartwatches](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.04736/) (2025)
- [Body-Area Capacitive or Electric Field Sensing for Human Activity Recognition and Human-Computer Interaction: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.06000/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Persistent coughs are a major symptom of respiratory-related diseases. Increasing research attention has been paid to detecting coughs using wearables, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among all types of sensors utilized, microphone is most widely used to detect coughs. However, the intense power consumption needed to process audio signals hinders continuous audio-based cough detection on battery-limited commercial wearable products, such as earbuds. We present CoughTrigger, which utilizes a lower-power sensor, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), in earbuds as a cough detection activator to trigger a higher-power sensor for audio processing and classification. It is able to run all-the-time as a standby service with minimal battery consumption and trigger the audio-based cough detection when a candidate cough is detected from IMU. Besides, the use of IMU brings the benefit of improved specificity of cough detection. Experiments are conducted on 45 subjects and our IMU-based model achieved 0.77 AUC score under leave one subject out evaluation. We also validated its effectiveness on free-living data and through on-device implementation.