Text by: Vincenzo Ronca – BrainSigns
The WorkingAge research project is very close to the In-Company tests starting, the final experimental phase in which the WorkingAge Of Wellbeing (WAOW) tool will be daily used by workers along their standard working days.
While all the logistics for starting the tests is going to be completed in the different testing sites, BrainSigns worked on the algorithms optimization to estimate the neurophysiological parameters on which the Neurometrics module of the WAOW tool relies.
In particular, the Photoplethysmohgraphic (PPG) signal analysis was optimized by tuning the parameters for estimating the Heart Rate through a wearable device such as the Empatica E4, the wristband that will be worn by the workers along all the In-Company tests.
Moreover, for the PPG and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) analysis, the artifact rejection methods were made more robust to the motion artifacts. In fact, we are expecting that the collected neurophysiological signals will be affected by various motion artifacts, caused by the workers’ activities, which could negatively interfere with the autonomic parameters evaluation, i.e. the HR and the Skin Conductance Level (SCL).
We tested these signal processing methods in a dedicated experimental protocol and we observed an increase of the algorithms reliability, especially in dynamical contexts.
