An Empirical Study Comparing Unobtrusive Physiological Sensors for Stress Detection in Computer Work
Several unobtrusive sensors have been tested in studies to capture physiological reactions to stress in workplace settings. Lab studies tend to focus on assessing sensors during a specific computer task, while in situ studies tend to offer a generalized view of sensors’ efficacy for workpl...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2019-08-01
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Series: | Sensors |
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Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/17/3766 |
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author | Fatema Akbar Gloria Mark Ioannis Pavlidis Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna |
author_facet | Fatema Akbar Gloria Mark Ioannis Pavlidis Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna |
author_sort | Fatema Akbar |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Several unobtrusive sensors have been tested in studies to capture physiological reactions to stress in workplace settings. Lab studies tend to focus on assessing sensors during a specific computer task, while in situ studies tend to offer a generalized view of sensors’ efficacy for workplace stress monitoring, without discriminating different tasks. Given the variation in workplace computer activities, this study investigates the efficacy of unobtrusive sensors for stress measurement across a variety of tasks. We present a comparison of five physiological measurements obtained in a lab experiment, where participants completed six different computer tasks, while we measured their stress levels using a chest-band (ECG, respiration), a wristband (PPG and EDA), and an emerging thermal imaging method (perinasal perspiration). We found that thermal imaging can detect increased stress for most participants across all tasks, while wrist and chest sensors were less generalizable across tasks and participants. We summarize the costs and benefits of each sensor stream, and show how some computer use scenarios present usability and reliability challenges for stress monitoring with certain physiological sensors. We provide recommendations for researchers and system builders for measuring stress with physiological sensors during workplace computer use. |
first_indexed | 2024-04-11T22:46:48Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-04daa2f27b7c47249981324db5330b09 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 1424-8220 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-04-11T22:46:48Z |
publishDate | 2019-08-01 |
publisher | MDPI AG |
record_format | Article |
series | Sensors |
spelling | doaj.art-04daa2f27b7c47249981324db5330b092022-12-22T03:58:44ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202019-08-011917376610.3390/s19173766s19173766An Empirical Study Comparing Unobtrusive Physiological Sensors for Stress Detection in Computer WorkFatema Akbar0Gloria Mark1Ioannis Pavlidis2Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna3Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, CA 92617, USADepartment of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, CA 92617, USAComputational Physiology Laboratory, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77004, USAPerception, Sensing, and Instrumentation Laboratory, Texas AM University, College Station, TX 77843, USASeveral unobtrusive sensors have been tested in studies to capture physiological reactions to stress in workplace settings. Lab studies tend to focus on assessing sensors during a specific computer task, while in situ studies tend to offer a generalized view of sensors’ efficacy for workplace stress monitoring, without discriminating different tasks. Given the variation in workplace computer activities, this study investigates the efficacy of unobtrusive sensors for stress measurement across a variety of tasks. We present a comparison of five physiological measurements obtained in a lab experiment, where participants completed six different computer tasks, while we measured their stress levels using a chest-band (ECG, respiration), a wristband (PPG and EDA), and an emerging thermal imaging method (perinasal perspiration). We found that thermal imaging can detect increased stress for most participants across all tasks, while wrist and chest sensors were less generalizable across tasks and participants. We summarize the costs and benefits of each sensor stream, and show how some computer use scenarios present usability and reliability challenges for stress monitoring with certain physiological sensors. We provide recommendations for researchers and system builders for measuring stress with physiological sensors during workplace computer use.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/17/3766stressphysiologywearablesunobtrusive sensorsthermal imaginghuman–computer interactionEDAPPGECG |
spellingShingle | Fatema Akbar Gloria Mark Ioannis Pavlidis Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna An Empirical Study Comparing Unobtrusive Physiological Sensors for Stress Detection in Computer Work Sensors stress physiology wearables unobtrusive sensors thermal imaging human–computer interaction EDA PPG ECG |
title | An Empirical Study Comparing Unobtrusive Physiological Sensors for Stress Detection in Computer Work |
title_full | An Empirical Study Comparing Unobtrusive Physiological Sensors for Stress Detection in Computer Work |
title_fullStr | An Empirical Study Comparing Unobtrusive Physiological Sensors for Stress Detection in Computer Work |
title_full_unstemmed | An Empirical Study Comparing Unobtrusive Physiological Sensors for Stress Detection in Computer Work |
title_short | An Empirical Study Comparing Unobtrusive Physiological Sensors for Stress Detection in Computer Work |
title_sort | empirical study comparing unobtrusive physiological sensors for stress detection in computer work |
topic | stress physiology wearables unobtrusive sensors thermal imaging human–computer interaction EDA PPG ECG |
url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/17/3766 |
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