title: Using activity-related behavioural features towards more effective automatic stress detection.
abstract: This paper introduces activity-related behavioural features that can be automatically extracted from a computer system, with the aim to increase the effectiveness of automatic stress detection. The proposed features are based on processing of appropriate video and accelerometer recordings taken from the monitored subjects. For the purposes of the present study, an experiment was conducted that utilized a stress-induction protocol based on the stroop colour word test. Video, accelerometer and biosignal (Electrocardiogram and Galvanic Skin Response) recordings were collected from nineteen participants. Then, an explorative study was conducted by following a methodology mainly based on spatiotemporal descriptors (Motion History Images) that are extracted from video sequences. A large set of activity-related behavioural features, potentially useful for automatic stress detection, were proposed and examined. Experimental evaluation showed that several of these behavioural features significantly correlate to self-reported stress. Moreover, it was found that the use of the proposed features can significantly enhance the performance of typical automatic stress detection systems, commonly based on biosignal processing.
authors.affiliation: Informatics and Telematics Institute, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Thermi, Thessaloniki, Greece. dgiakoum@iti.gr
authors.forename: Dimitris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Giakoumis
authors.forename: Anastasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Drosou
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cipresso
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tzovaras
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hassapis
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gaggioli
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Riva
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001519:Behavior; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D006802:Human Activities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014743:Videotape Recording