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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Main Authors: Fatema Akbar, Gloria Mark, Ioannis Pavlidis, Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-08-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
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.
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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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