About TECO
Established in 1993, TECO is a pioneering research group at KIT’s Institute of Telematics advancing ubiquitous and wearable computing through intelligent embedded systems, embedded AI, and novel human-computer interaction.
In close collaboration with industry, TECO drives innovation and fundamental research in real-world domains such as HealthTech and Industry 4.0, delivering open-source platforms including OpenEarable and EdgeML.
Founded at KIT as a pioneer in ubiquitous computing.
Research projects across the TECO portfolio.
People advancing ubiquitous computing.
Featured platform
The world's first fully open-source AI platform for ear-based sensing applications.
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OpenEarable is an open-source, AI-enabled platform for ear-based sensing applications with true wireless audio. The modular and reconfigurable platform is packed with a variety of high-precision sensors, designed for both development and research applications.
BayaHAR enables lightweight, gradient-free personalization of pretrained wearable HAR models to new users using only a few seconds of labeled or weakly labeled calibration data, supporting efficient and robust on-device adaptation.
Finger-to-Ear ECG explores earbud-based cardiac monitoring by combining an in-ear electrode with finger contact, enabling high-quality ECG recordings and morphology preservation in a practical wearable form factor.
This project systematically reviews affective wearable haptic interventions, examining how touch-based wearables regulate emotions and well-being across haptic modalities, body locations, intervention mechanisms, and application contexts.
Calmables is a closed-loop infrared earable designed to explore thermal biofeedback for relaxation support. The system uses heart-rate data from a smart ring to establish an individual baseline and identify periods of elevated physiological activation. When a personalized threshold is reached, the earable delivers a subtle, localized warming stimulus to the ear using infrared light. A companion smartphone application coordinates the interaction and visualizes physiological changes, while independent temperature limits and communication fail-safes ensure safe operation. In a preliminary placebo-controlled evaluation with 18 participants, the active prototype received higher ratings for perceived relaxation and recovery support than an identical-looking placebo device. Calmables demonstrates how physiological sensing and unobtrusive thermal stimulation can be combined to make biofeedback tangible and support brief moments of recovery.
EarStreAM is a closed-loop earable system that detects stress through in-ear sensing and automatically delivers personalized, LLM-generated meditation, adapting the intervention until the user’s physiological state returns toward baseline.
Transfer
Validaitor is a TECO research spin-off developing a comprehensive auditing and certification system for AI. Funded by the BMBF’s StartUpSecure KASTEL program, it ensures AI systems are trustworthy and compliant.
AskUI provides AI-powered automation by controlling operating systems rather than individual applications. By bringing vision to code, it enables developers to automate any use case across all platforms seamlessly.
Liftwise is a German startup providing an AI-powered fitness system for gyms. It uses a smart sensor armband and NFC technology to offer real-time technique feedback, automated tracking, and gamification.
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