BioEssence: A Wearable Olfactory Display that Monitors Cardio-respiratory Information to Support Mental Wellbeing

Abstract

This work introduces a novel wearable olfactory display that provides just-in-time release of scents based on the physiological state of the wearer. The device can release up to three scents and passively captures subtle chest vibrations associated with the beating of the heart and respiration through clothes. BioEssence is controlled via a custom-made smartphone app that allows the creation of physiological rules to trigger different scents (e.g., when the heart rate is above 80 beats per minute, release lavender scent). The device is wireless and lightweight, and it is designed to be used during daily life, clipped on clothes around the sternum area or used as a necklace. We provide a description of the design and implementation of the prototype and potential use cases in the context of mental wellbeing.

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Real-time Smartphone-based Sleep Staging using 1-Channel EEG

“…We aim to use this work for realtime interventions using Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) for applications in HCI. Specifically, we hope to integrate wearable olfactory systems [2] that can automatically intervene in real-time during specific sleep stages to enhance the quality of sleep along with real-time audio-neural feedback [24] and sleep-based enhancement of learning and memory [3], [21].…”

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“…The wearables detect heart rate and respiration by monitoring subtle body vibrations associated with the beating of the heart and the movement of the blood (i.e., ballistocardiography and seismocardiography). They are also synchronized with external sensors, such as the Muse wearable EEG and Empatica Wristband to monitor HR, HRV, EDA and body temperature (based on previous work [21], [22]). We took into consideration some of the current limitations of PSG setups, as well as of scent delivery systems used for sleep applications in the medical field.…”

“…6) Biometric Information: The wearables that we have designed can link the individual's physiological state and the physical location with an olfactory response, supporting emerging approaches for self-monitoring and self-awareness. They are based on the designs described in BioEssence clip [21] and Essence necklace [22]. In this paper we focused on expanding on these designs for sleep applications.…”

“…The user is in control of the type of scent released and when it is triggered. We used similar electronics as the ones in previous work [21]. One difference between the designs are the piezoelectrics.…”