Hi Everyone - Saw a great talk by J. Paul Neeley recently that got me interested in QS and applying it to my work designing tools that help people be more resilient and effective at work.
I’m interested in tracking stress as it relates to different activities throughout my day. I have a relatively good tracking system set up for my activities, but I’m having trouble figuring out what to use to gather data on my stress levels.
I’m looking for feedback on some approaches and tools I’m considering. I’m hoping to find (or cobble together) a system that allows me to export data into CSV or similar format with stress data tracked against time.
**Heart rate monitor: **I’ve looked at some options from Polar, but I’m unclear whether these will give me a good measurement that relates to stress. Does anyone have experience using a heart rate monitor to track stress over days or weeks? Will standard heart rate info work, or will I need something that specifically monitors heart rate variability?
Galvanic Skin Response: I’ve looked at the BodyMedia line of armbands, though apparently GSR data can’t be separated out from other data through their software. I’ve seen some references to third party java apps that can pull GSR data - has anyone had experience with this? Can anyone share experience tracking GSR?
Any advice or thoughts on your experience would be very helpful - thanks!
Heart-Rate measuring tools: you may want to look into Instant Heart Rate and Stress Check apps by Azumio. They have free versions (and the paid one are only .99 cents). The latter uses heart-rate variability (HRV) to measure stress, and HRV as reliable indicator of stress has been validated by numerous scientific studies. Stress Check gives u both quantitative (a score) and qualitative (Low, Medium, High level) estimate of your stress level
Not sure why would u want to separate GSR from BodyMedia - the strength of this tool is exactly in combination of galvanic skin response measurements and accelerator reading as a way to estimate the caloric burn. I understand that u want to use GSR to measure stress, but how would u translate the GSR readings into stress scores, even if u get the GSR feed? You will need a proven formula for that.
I hope this helps!
Konstantin
Analytics just became personal! Can you express your everyday life in numbers? Can you improve your life by turning it into a series of games and experiments? Follow my personal “Measured Me” experiment to find out: http://www.measuredme.com
You sad, that “I’m interested in tracking stress as it relates to different activities throughout my day”. I think, I know one app, that can help you manage with that problem
1 month ago I found interesting iPhone app called “In Flow”. Their slogan is “Explore your happiness”.
I don’t want re-write whole description in AppStore, but in few words i’ll try.
You just have to make “check-in” (several times through the day), set-up your Emotions/Energy, define location (optional), persons, that surround you (optional), your activities (optional). Also you can make a picture, but this is not the core.
So after some time (in my case around 1 week - if you make 2-3 check-in per day) you would be able to unlock statistics (because it should be relevant) called “Best & Worst”. There you will find statistics about which activities, persons, places makes you happy or stressful.
In my case, I had few insights about my daily activities…
Also, this app have Predictions, but it’s another case
I hope my answer will help you. Yup, and here is a direct link to their website http://www.inflow.mobi
[quote]Heart rate monitor: I’ve looked at some options from Polar, but I’m unclear whether these will give me a good measurement that relates to stress. Does anyone have experience using a heart rate monitor to track stress over days or weeks? Will standard heart rate info work, or will I need something that specifically monitors heart rate variability?[/quote]I brought a polar watch with the intention of 24/7 coverage. The stuff isn’t designed for that purpose. My skin didn’t like it.
Additionally if you don’t sweet enough frequently loses the signal.
As a separate note HRV is much better for measuring stress than taking just heart rate.
There was an article about Mobilyze recently published at “6 Sci-Fi Technologies You’ll Soon Have on Your Phone” article.
The concept is really cool, but not sure if it is available - you might want to check it out.
It’s called Mobilyze, it lives in your phone and it can tell what your mental state is. It watches your whole life: The system gathers data from GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and accelerometers – all standard fare in most smartphones. Through special algorithms, Mobilyze uses this data to determine if you’re showing signs of depression, and reacts accordingly
Depends on how much you want to spend. You could download all the azumio apps. Another option is Empatica.
Taking blood pressure might also be a good idea, IF you plan on being really thorough. The only problem with these tools that Arent all in one is that you need to manually check in.
