Design Notes - How to Measure Emotional Stress, Distress, and/or Pain

Hello All - I've gotten a few requests to share "How to Measure Stress", so I thought I'd make a blog post sharing what I know, have tested, and links for further information.  Maybe I'll make a book next year on this topic.

A lot of the requests stem from my "Medical Monitor with Emotional Stress Pain Indicator and Biofeedback" and How to Make It.

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Here's some if not most of the methods by which you can empirically determine stress.  Most of these concepts started with basic Polygraphy or Lie Detection.  From there developed Biofeedback Devices, Medical Monitors, then Neurobiofeedback. 

Who knows what's next? I'm working on it!

All the above measure the physiological changes that occur when someone is stressed, e.g. telling a lie, in pain, distressed over some emotional issue, etc.

These links show the most common physiological signs or tests to identify and/or quantify "stress" - 

Polygraph - Most commonly measure are skin conductance, heart rate, and/or respiration.  Heart Rate Variability have been used most commonly lately to determine stress.

As far as I know, here's where it all started way back in 1881 -
Description of a Polygraph. In this crude start, the heart impulses and respiratory movements were measured and recorded.  From there, all of our modern devices have evolved.

Let's not forget Affective Computing, too, in our consideration.
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In my First Medical Monitor with Emotional Stress Pain Indicator and Biofeedback, I used skin conductance.  It was a start and showed the concept.  In my current model, I'm using Heart Rate Variability (HRV), since it is much more robust than skin conductance.  Skin conductance is good, but hard to measure reliably in a real-world setting.  Pulse sensors are more reliable and robust for this usage.  I like the Gravity: Heart Rate Monitor Sensor For Arduino - DFRobot (link below).

Here are some commercially available stress sensors/information available to the public for experimentation:

Skin Conductance -

Grove - GSR Sensor - Seeed Wiki

Galvanic Skin Response GSR - Arduino Forum

Heart Beat/Pulse -

Pulse Sensor - SEN-11574 - SparkFun Electronics

Heartbeat - Arduino Playground

Pulse Sensor With Arduino Tutorial: 9 Steps (with Pictures)

Arduino & Processing - HEART BEAT MONITOR With Pulse Sensor.

SparkFun Single Lead Heart Rate Monitor - AD8232 - SEN-12650 ...

Polar Heart Rate Monitor Interface - SEN-08661 - SparkFun Electronics

Gravity: Heart Rate Monitor Sensor For Arduino - DFRobot

Here are some links on how to measure and use Heart Rate Variability:

Topic: heart-rate-variability · GitHub

HRV Biofeedback - Joegle

Biohack: Heart Rate Variability « Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers ...

Pulse Sensor HRV Poincare Plot – World Famous Electronics llc.

PulseSensor Project HRV - Arduino Forum

Arduino Pulse Sensor Cardio Graph: 3 Steps (with Pictures)

Hacking Mindfulness with an Arduino and the iPhone | kpkaiser.com

Meditation Trainer - Adafruit Industries

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Stay tuned for my next model!  You'll be surprised!

That's about all for now.  Have fun.  Let me know if you have comments, questions, etc.

Disclaimer - Article if for information only and is not medical advice.

How to Make a "Medical Monitor with an Emotional Stress and/or Pain Indicator and Biofeedback"

Typically, Medical Monitors only display the Patient's Vital Signs. - This new Medical Monitor indicates Emotional Stress and/or Pain, too.

This new monitor provides an External Indicator e.g. colored lights to show the Internal Distress/Pain Condition of a person, e.g. a Patient - and provides a means to assist a person, e.g. a Patient, to Reduce their Distress/Pain by Relaxation Means, e.g. Deep, Slow Breathing.

See this Video to see How It Works, Theory of Operation, Applications, etc. - Medical Monitor with an Emotional Stress And/or Pain Indicator - Explanation Video.

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There are two versions of this concept – one uses Skin Conductance or Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) and the other uses Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

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This Blog Post shows how the make the Skin Conductance Version (GSR). (My Working Model is not for sale – but you can make your own – and make it even better than I did!) 

The HRV version is being worked on and will be revealed soon.
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Here's the Big Picture of my Working Model:

See Parts List.


Here's How I Made it.... 

1. Make a Medical Monitor Simulator to illustrate the total concept of a “Medical Monitor with an Emotional Stress And/or Pain Indicators”. I just used a picture of a typical Medical Monitor with "Emotional Stress And/or Pain Indicators" glued onto the picture.

Of course, you could modify an actual existing Medical Monitor to add the "Emotional Stress And/or Pain Indicators", too.

2. Make a Patient Wrist Band that measures skin conductance or heart rate variability (HRV). For my GSR version, I made a wrist band with copper sensors glued on - instead of the finger sensors that came with the Grove GSR Sensor.

(On the HRV version, glue the Heart Pulse Sensor onto the wrist band instead of the GSR copper sensors.)

3. Make a Patient Bedside Console with “Emotional Stress And/or Pain Indicators” and also Biofeedback indicators to help patient relax. I just used a hacked up old TV Remote to illustrate the concept.

The upper horizontal string Green, Yellow, and Red Led's are the "Emotional Stress And/or Pain Indicators", same as on the Medical Monitor.

The Two Blue vertical Led's below them are the Patient Biofeedback Breathing Pacer Indicators.

4 Wire an Arduino Uno according to this Wiring Diagram, referring the Parts List.

5. Program the Arduino with this Sketch. (Copy and Paste into Arduino) - If you don't like the transition between Red, Yellow, and Green - try experimenting with with the sensorValue portion of the sketch that turns on and off the R, Y, G led's.

6. Replay this Video to see how to work the system and try it out.

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The "heart" of this model are the sensors:

* For Skin Conductance, the Grove GSR Sensor - Video1

* For Heart Rate Variability, the PulseSensor - and HRV - Scroll down to this Video


More Videos/Pictures.

This concept was shown by me at a local Maker Faire, last year.



Here's some Emotion Wearables to build your work on, too.

Questions? - Let me know and I'll try to answer them - tgideas@gmail.com
Good Luck!

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References -

Medical Monitor with an Emotional Stress And/or Pain Indicator

How to Make a “Medical Monitor with an Emotional Stress And/Or Pain Indicator”

Detecting Pain in Infants and Non-Responsive Patients

10 Exciting Ideas on How to Learn or Teach Healthcare “Bedside Manners” -

As a Healthcare Professional, Are You Checking All the Vital Signs to Evaluate Total Patient Condition?

Smart wearable body sensors for patient self-assessment and ...

Medical monitor
 
A Simple Physiological Monitor System For Neonatal Applications ...
 
How much does it hurt? New system quantifies pain | ISRAEL21c

The BioRadio Wireless Physiology Monitor |

China Bedside Monitor, Bedside Monitor Manufacturers, Suppliers ...

An ambulatory physiological monitor for extended use in animal ...

Patent WO2000044274A3 - Personal physiological monitor
 
Evaluation of Autonomic Nervous Activity Based on ... - ResearchGate
 
Heart rate variability and pain: associations of two interrelated ... - NCBI
 
HRV as Pain Indicator | PetPace Smart Collar
 
HRV Biofeedback in Pain Patients - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov
 
Measurement of Heart Rate Variability to Assess Pain in Sedated ...
 
Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Promising in Chronic Pain
 
Changes in skin conductance as a tool to monitor nociceptive ... - NCBI
 
The Capability of Skin Conductance to Monitor Pain Compared to ...
 
Use of Electrodermal Activity for Assessment of Pain/Stress in ...
 
The reaction to pain as determined by the galvanic skin response.
 
Autonomic responses to heat pain: Heart rate, skin conductance ...
 
The skin conductance response - MIT Media Lab
A Stress Sensor Based on Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) - MDPI
 
Heart rate and palmar skin conductance in anticipation of painful ...
 
Analysis of galvanic skin response - IUPUI ScholarWorks - Indiana ...

HRV Biofeedback - Joegle

Arduino Stress Detector: 6 Steps

Galvanic Skin Response Infographic - Getting Under the Skin - iMotions

 

Disclaimer - Articles and Videos are for information only and are not medical advice.  See additional disclaimers.