Wearable Stress Detection

Funded research project

Novel Wearable-based Stress Detection Using Earables and Smartwatches

Research lead

Dr Christopher Clarke

Project core team

Gregory Knowles
Dr Benjamin Metcalfe
Dr Lee Moore

Hub Research theme

Smartphone and wearable technologies

University of Bath logo
TOBI Technologies logo
Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust Logo

Background

Stress is a global problem that negatively affects mental and physical health. Stress can increase the risk of disease and has been linked with illnesses such as anxiety, depression, and heart disease. The ability to detect and measure stress can lead to better understanding of its effect on mental and physical health.

Intended outcomes

Dr Clarke’s team will explore how ear-based devices can measure how the body changes during stress. Smart earphones can complement or replace smartwatches and can sense a wide variety of bodily changes whilst being less susceptible to movement artefacts which can degrade the quality and validity of the readings.

The team will collect data to train and test a machine learning model that will be able to predict different stress levels. By doing so, it will be possible to detect and measure stress during everyday life, such as when listening to music or at work. This will help to increase understanding of how stress impacts people with, and contributes towards, chronic diseases.