Wearable AI Systems Group
Dr. Tobias Röddiger

Profile
I am Tobias Röddiger, a group leader for Wearable Systems at TECO at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. In my research I developed intelligent embedded systems at the intersection of hardware, humans, and artificial intelligence. Previously, I studied and conducted research at KIT, MIT, University of Cambridge, and Lancaster University. I have strong ties with industry (e.g., Bosch Sensortec). Additionally, I founded two companies, worked at Microsoft and shipped systems to millions of users.
If you are interested in thesis, HiWi, PhD positions, etc., please send an e-mail!
For a full list of my past experience and publications, please have a look at the resources below.
Teaching
- Ubiquitous Computing (every fall term)
- Mobile Computing and Internet of Things - Exercise (every fall term)
Projects

OpenEarable
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.

OpenWearables
The OpenWearables project is an initiative to advance wearable computing by following open-hardware and open-software principles. It aims to create a research infrastructure and community that makes wearable devices more accessible, extensible, interoperable and impactful.
Affective Wearable Haptic Interventions
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.
EarXplore
EarXplore is an evolving, interactive database that organizes and visualizes research on earables. It helps the community explore existing studies, uncover trends, and shape the future of earable technology.

BayaHAR
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.

EarStreAM
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.

KD²School
An interdisciplinary graduate school focused on designing adaptive IT systems that improve economic decision-making. The research explores the intersection of human behavior, technology, and institutions.

Finger-to-Ear ECG
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.

Calmables
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.

Heatables
Heatables investigates the use of near-infrared (NIR) and infrared (IR) optical stimulation within the human ear to modulate thermal perception and comfort. The project explores the auditory canal as a novel physiological and perceptual interface for personalized thermal regulation.
Publications
Lee, J.; Röddiger, T.; Makarem, S.; Riedel, T.; Kunze, K.; Beigl, M.
2026. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 10 (1), 1–41. doi:10.1145/3790116
Ramesh, S.; Neufeld, M.; Küttner, M.; Röddiger, T.; Beigl, M.
2026. ISWC ’26: Proceedings of the 2026 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers. Ed.: D. Zhang, 127–133, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3830727.3834821
Lepold, P.; Breitling, P.; Hummel, J.; Röddiger, T.; Beigl, M.
2026. ISWC ’26: Proceedings of the 2026 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers, 71–77, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3830727.3834819
Burzer, M.; King, T.; Riedel, T.; Beigl, M.; Röddiger, T.
2025. Companion of the 2025 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, 1315–1322, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3714394.3756254
Küttner, M.; Zitz, V.; Gerling, K. M.; Beigl, M.; Röddiger, T.
2025. Companion of the 2025 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing; Espoo, Fannland, 12.-16.10.2025, 439–443, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3714394.3754416
Lee, J.; Moschina, D.; Ramesh, S.; Röddiger, T.; Kunze, K.; Beigl, M.
2025. Proceedings of the ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC’25), 30–37, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3715071.3750412
Lee, J.; Filpe, M.; Lepold, P.; Röddiger, T.; Beigl, M.
2025. Proceedings of the 2025 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers, 83–90, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3715071.3750427
Zitz, V.; Küttner, M.; Hummel, J.; Knierim, M. T.; Beigl, M.; Röddiger, T.
2025. Proceedings of the ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC’25), 91–97, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3715071.3750421
Wang, Z.; Yu, R.; Wang, X.; Ding, J.; Tang, J.; Fang, J.; He, Z.; Li, Z.; Röddiger, T.; Xu, W.; Zhang, X.; Gao, H.- ang; Gao, N.; Yu, C.; Shi, Y.; Wang, Y.
2025. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 9 (3), 54 S. doi:10.1145/3749480
Hansen, A.; Makarem, S.; Kunze, K.; Zhou, Y.; Knierim, M. T.; Clarke, C.; Gellersen, H.; Beigl, M.; Röddiger, T.
2025. Proceedings of the 2025 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications, Art.-Nr.: 3, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3715669.3723110
Röddiger, T.; Zitz, V.; Hummel, J.; Küttner, M.; Lepold, P.; King, T.; Paradiso, J. A.; Clarke, C.; Beigl, M.
2025. CHI EA ’25: Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Art.-Nr.: 713, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3706599.3721161
Zhao, H.; Röddiger, T.; Feng, Y.; Beigl, M.
2025, March 5. doi:10.35097/LuEUQApwxQrvGfKm
King, T.; Zhou, Y.; Röddiger, T.; Beigl, M.
2025. Scientific Reports, 15 (1), Art.-Nr.: 7575. doi:10.1038/s41598-025-90764-z
Röddiger, T.; Küttner, M.; Lepold, P.; King, T.; Moschina, D.; Bagge, O.; Paradiso, J. A.; Clarke, C.; Beigl, M.
2025. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 9 (1), Art.-Nr.: 16. doi:10.1145/3712069
Knierim, M. T.; Zimny, C.; Ivucic, G.; Röddiger, T.
2025. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 9 (1), 1–26. doi:10.1145/3712283
King, T.; Knierim, M.; Lepold, P.; Clarke, C.; Gellersen, H.; Beigl, M.; Röddiger, T.
2025. Scientific Reports, 15 (1), 32437. doi:10.1038/s41598-025-16839-z
King, T.; Röddiger, T.; Laubenstein, D.; Beigl, M.
2024. Proceedings of the 2024 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers, 144–147, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3675095.3676627
Lepold, P.; Röddiger, T.; King, T.; Kunze, K.; Maurer, C.; Beigl, M.
2024. UbiComp ’24: Companion of the 2024 on ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, 916 – 920, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3675094.3678480
Röddiger, T.; Stuchbury-Wass, J.; Ciliberto, M.; Lepold, P.; Beigl, M.
2024. Companion of the 2024 on ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, 930 – 933, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3675094.3678483
Zhao, H.; Röddiger, T.; Yufei, F.; Beigl, M.
2024. ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp ’24), 679 – 684, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3675094.3680525
Zhou, Y.; Zhao, H.; Huang, Y.; Röddiger, T.; Kurnaz, M.; Riedel, T.; Beigl, M.
2024. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 8 (2), Art.-Nr.: 48. doi:10.1145/3659589
Zhou, Y.; King, T.; Huang, Y.; Zhao, H.; Riedel, T.; Röddiger, T.; Beigl, M.
2024. 22nd IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom 2024), 33–38, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). doi:10.1109/PerComWorkshops59983.2024.10502894
Makarem, S.; Röddiger, T.; Riedel, T.; Beigl, M.
2024. Mensch und Computer 2024 - Workshopband : 01.-04. September 2024, Karlsruhe, Germany, Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI). doi:10.18420/muc2024-mci-demo-305
Dinh, T. A.; Mullov, C.; Bärmann, L.; Li, Z.; Liu, D.; Reiß, S.; Lee, J.; Lerzer, N.; Ternava, F.; Gao, J.; Röddiger, T.; Waibel, A.; Asfour, T.; Beigl, M.; Stiefelhagen, R.; Dachsbacher, C.; Böhm, K.; Niehues, J.
2024. arxiv. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2406.10421
Lepold, P.; Röddiger, T.; King, T.; Kunze, K.; Maurer, C.; Beigl, M.
2024. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2410.06533
Dinh, T. A.; Mullov, C.; Bärmann, L.; Li, Z.; Liu, D.; Reiß, S.; Lee, J.; Lerzer, N.; Gao, J.; Peller-Konrad, F.; Röddiger, T.; Waibel, A.; Asfour, T.; Beigl, M.; Stiefelhagen, R.; Dachsbacher, C.; Böhm, K.; Niehues, J.
2024. Y. Al-Onaizan, M. Bansal & Y.-N. Chen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2024 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, Miami, 12th-16th November 2024, Hrsg.: Al-Onaizan, Y., Bansal, M., Chen, Y.-N., 11592–11610, Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL). doi:10.18653/v1/2024.emnlp-main.647
Moschina, D.; Röddiger, T.; Beigl, M.
2023. UbiComp/ISWC ’23 Adjunct: Adjunct Proceedings of the 2023 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing & the 2023 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computing, Ed.: M. Tentori, 324 – 326, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3594739.3610669
Röddiger, T.
2023, August 3. Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT). doi:10.5445/IR/1000161088
Röddiger, T.; King, T.; Roodt, D. R.; Clarke, C.; Beigl, M.
2023. UbiComp/ISWC ’22 Adjunct: Adjunct Proceedings of the 2022 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and the 2022 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers, 246–251, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3544793.3563415
Knierim, M. T.; Puhl, D.; Ivucic, G.; Röddiger, T.
2023. CHI EA ’23: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Ed.: A. Schmidt, Art.-Nr.: 221, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3544549.3585875
Schwabe, N.; Zhou, Y.; Hielscher, L.; Röddiger, T.; Riedel, T.; Reiter, S.
2022. at - Automatisierungstechnik, 70 (9), 767–776. doi:10.1515/auto-2022-0023
Röddiger, T.; King, T.; Roodt, D. R.; Clarke, C.; Beigl, M.
2022, September 15
Hermann, S.; Röddiger, T.; Beigl, M.
2022. Proceedings of the 2022 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers, 103–105, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3544794.3558472
Röddiger, T.; Clarke, C.; Breitling, P.; Schneegans, T.; Zhao, H.; Gellersen, H.; Beigl, M.
2022. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 6 (3), Article 135. doi:10.1145/3550314
Röddiger, T.; Clarke, C.; Wolffram, D.; Budde, M.; Beigl, M.
2021. Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Art.-Nr.: 743, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3411764.3445205
Fang, L.; Röddiger, T.; Schmid, F.; Beigl, M.
2021. Augmented Humans Conference 2021, 286–288, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3458709.3459005
Zhao, H.; Roddiger, T.; Beigl, M.
2021. Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers: September 21-25, 2021 ; Virtual Event, 180–184, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3460418.3479329
Röddiger, T.; Beigl, M.; Dörner, D.; Budde, M.
2020. Digital Government: Research and Practice, 2 (1), Art.-Nr.: 9. doi:10.1145/3428471
Fang, L.; Röddiger, T.; Sun, H.; Willenbacher, N.; Beigl, M.
2020. UbiComp/ISWC ’20: 2020 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and 2020 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers. Ed.: K. v. Laerhoven, 32–36, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3410531.3414307
Röddiger, T.; Beigl, M.; Exler, A.
2020. UbiComp/ISWC ’20: 2020 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and 2020 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers, Virtual Event, Mexico, September, 2020. Ed.: K. van Laerhoven, 73–78, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3410531.3414302
Röddiger, T.; Beigl, M.; Wolffram, D.; Budde, M.; Sun, H.
2020. AHs ’20: Proceedings of the Augmented Humans International Conference, March 2020, Article No.: 28, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3384657.3384789
Röddiger, T.; Dinse, C.; Beigl, M.
2020. ISWC’21: Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers: September 21-26, 2021 ; Virtual Event, 150–152, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3460421.3480432
Pescara, E.; Stubenbord, A.; Röddiger, T.; Fang, L.; Beigl, M.
2020. ISWC’21: Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers: September 21-26, 2021 ; Virtual Event, 68–72, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3460421.3478822
Hermann, S.; Breitling, P.; Röddiger, T.; Beigl, M.
2020. ISWC’21: Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers: September 21-26, 2021 ; Virtual Event, 28–32, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3460421.3478820
Röddiger, T.; Wolffram, D.; Laubenstein, D.; Budde, M.; Beigl, M.
2019. UbiComp ’19: The 2019 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing - EarComp’19: Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Earable Computing - London, United Kingdom, 9th-13th September 2019, 48–53, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3345615.3361130
Röddiger, T.; Doerner, D.; Beigl, M.
2018. 2018 Joint ACM International Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, UbiComp 2018 and 2018 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers, ISWC 2018; Singapore; Singapore; 8 October 2018 through 12 October 2018, 440–443, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3267305.3267631
Röddiger, T.; Beigl, M.; Köpke, M.; Budde, M.
2018. 22nd International Symposium on Wearable Computers, ISWC 2018; Singapore; Singapore; 8 October 2018 through 12 October 2018, 226–227, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3267242.3267273