Monitoring physiology and behavior using Android in phobias

Abstract

In this paper, we present an Android-based system Application - AWARE - for the assessment of the person's physiology and behavior outside of the laboratory. To accomplish this purpose, AWARE delivers context dependent audio-visual stimuli, embedded into the subject's real-world perception, via marker/vision-based augmented reality (AR) technology. In addition, it employs external measuring resources connected via Bluetooth, as well as the smartphone's integrated resources. It synchronously acquires the experiment's video (camera input with AR overlay), physiologic responses (with a dedicated ECG measuring device) and behavior (through movement and location, with accelerometer/gyroscope and GPS, respectively). Psychological assessment is heavily based on laboratory procedures, even though it is known that these settings disturb the subjects' natural reactions and condition. The major idea of this application is to evaluate the participant condition, mimicking his/her real life conditions. Given that phobias are rather context specific, they represent the ideal candidate for assessing the feasibility of a mobile system application. AWARE allowed presenting AR stimuli (e.g., 3D spiders) and quantifying the subjects' reactions non-intrusively (e.g., heart rate variation) - more emphatic in the phobic volunteer when presented with spider vs non phobic stimulus. Although still a proof of concept, AWARE proved to be flexible, and straightforward to setup, with the potential to support ecologically valid monitoring experiments.

An internet-based self-applied rat phobia treatment using a Virtual Therapy Assistant: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

“…Most of the available treatments are directed towards other types of animals and insects [9,53] and specific situations such as fear of flying [11]. In addition to this, only a few studies integrate physiological markers along with cognitive and behavioral measurements [54,55]. In this study, heart rate monitoring has been integrated as a physiological indicator, and face and eyes detection to determine the level of avoidance as a behavioral indicator, data that serves to monitor the emotional state of the participant, which will allow greater control and security for the user in the face of gradual exposure.…”

The feasibility of an augment reality system to study the psychophysiological correlates of fear‐related responses

“…Smartphones have been successfully used to collect and process psychophysiological data. Recent studies (Brás, Soares, Moreira, & Fernandes, 2015;Cruz et al, 2015) point these devices as being useful, portable, and inexpensive solutions to perform the required tasks and concomitant physiological assessment. Equally important, the results of the present study were successful in showing an AR system using such devices, even while recruiting participants without a formal diagnosis of specific phobia, although we recommend future studies to include such sample.…”

“…Given that phobias, namely spider phobia, are rather context specific and are highly prevalent in the general population (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), their study is the ideal candidate to assess the feasibility of using a mobile and wearable device for investigating the psychophysiological mechanisms involving fear and anxiety. In a previous work, we presented AWARE (Cruz, Bras, Soares, & Fernandes, 2015), a low-cost, mobile, and augmented reality-based setup to collect the individual's fear responses to stimuli. AWARE makes use of generic mobile devices as a portable and convenient platform for stimuli presentation and multimodal monitoring.…”

Ulazni Stepen Edukativnog Elektrofiziološkog Akvizicionog Uređaja

“…Pored prethodno navedenih merno-akvizicionih sistema koji najčešće koriste PC računare i aplikacije, postoje i sistemi koji uključuju pametne telefone. Uređaj opisan u radu [6] razvijen je na Raspeberry PI platformi. Prikupljeni podaci su putem wireless komunikacije dalje prosleđeni do mobilnog telefona, gde se vršila vizuelizacija tih podataka.…”