Application of DIY Electrodermal Activity Wristband in Detecting Stress and Affective Responses of Students

This paper describes the analysis of electrodermal activity (EDA) in the context of students' scholastic activity. Taking a multidisciplinary, citizen science and maker-centric approach, low-cost, bespoken wearables, such as a mini weather station and biometric wristband, were built. To investigate both physical health as well as stress, the instruments were first validated against research grade devices. Following this, a research experiment was created and conducted in the context of students' scholastic activity. Data from this experiment were used to train machine learning models, which were then applied to interpret the relationships between the environment, health, and stress. It is hoped that analyses of EDA data will further strengthen the emerging model describing the intersections between local microclimate and physiological and neurological stress. The results suggest that temperature and air quality play an important role in students' physiological well-being, thus demonstrating the feasibility of understanding the extent of the effects of various microclimatic factors. This highlights the importance of thermal comfort and air ventilation in real-life applications to improve students' well-being. We envision our work making a significant impact by showcasing the effectiveness and feasibility of inexpensive, self-designed wearable devices for tracking microclimate and electrodermal activity (EDA). The affordability of these wearables holds promising implications for scalability and encourages crowd-sourced citizen science in the relatively unexplored domain of microclimate's influence on well-being. Embracing citizen science can then democratize learning and expedite rapid research advancements.

Exploring the Predictive Potential of Physiological Measures of Human Thermal Strain in Outdoor Environments in Hot and Humid Areas in Summer-A Case Study of Shanghai, China

Whenever people spend time outdoors during hot weather, they are putting themselves in potentially stressful situations. Being able to predict whether a person is overheating can be critical in preventing heat-health issues. There is a clear relationship between body core temperature and heat health. However, measuring body core temperature is expensive. Identifying a non-invasive measure that could indicate a person's thermal strain would be valuable. This study investigated five physiological measures as possible surrogates: finger mean skin temperature (FSKT), finger maximum skin temperature (FMSKT), skin conductance level (SCL), heart rate (HR), and heart rate variability (HRV). Furthermore, they were compared against the results of participants' subjective thermal sensation and thermal comfort in a range of hot microclimatic conditions in a hot and humid climate. Results showed that except for SCL, each of the other four physiological measures had a positive significant relationship with thermal sensation, but a negative relationship with thermal comfort. Furthermore, through testing by cumulative link mixed models, HRV was found to be the most suitable surrogate for predicting thermal sensation and thermal comfort through a simple, non-invasive measure in outdoor environment in summer in a hot and humid area. This study highlights the method for predicting human thermal strain and contributes to improve the public health and well-being of urban dwellers in outdoor environments.