Carnegie Mellon researchers have proven that widely available earbuds can double as heart-monitoring devices, capturing subtle cardiac activity with near-clinical accuracy and potentially expanding access to long-term, at-home care

The team will present their findings at the 2026 Association of Computing Machinery Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. The findings are also published on the arXiv preprint server.

“Collecting these signals typically requires a clinical setting in which the patient lies down, removes their shirt, and is instrumented with accelerometers and gyroscopes,” said Justin Chan, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science, who advised the project.