What is it about?
This study introduces ThermalEye, a smart-glasses system that detects eye blinks using a tiny, low-resolution thermal sensor — instead of a camera. When we blink, the temperature around our eyes changes slightly. ThermalEye captures these heat patterns and uses AI to recognize whether the eyes are open or closed. Unlike camera-based systems, it works in the dark, uses very little power, and does not record any facial images, making it more privacy-friendly.
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Photo by Quang Tri NGUYEN on Unsplash
Why is it important?
ThermalEye provides a timely, privacy-preserving alternative to camera-based blink detection, which often suffers from lighting issues, high power use, and privacy risks. By using a low-cost, low-resolution thermal sensor that captures only heat — not images — our system works reliably in sensitive settings like healthcare, driving, and AR/VR. It is the first to achieve accurate blink detection with such affordable hardware, showing that high performance doesn’t require expensive cameras. Tested across multiple users and conditions, ThermalEye demonstrates the practicality of thermal sensing for continuous, privacy-safe eye monitoring in wearable devices.
Perspectives
Working on this project has been a meaningful experience for me. As someone interested in privacy-preserving sensing and wearable technology, I found it exciting to explore how a simple thermal sensor could achieve reliable blink detection without relying on cameras. This work not only challenged me technically, but also deepened my appreciation for human-centered, ethical design in computing. I hope this paper inspires more research into low-cost, passive alternatives for health monitoring and interaction.
Yuhan Chen
University of Hong Kong
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: ThermalEye: Fully Passive Eye Blink Detection on Smart Glasses via Low-Cost Thermal Sensing, November 2025, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3737905.3769280.
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