Stress Arousal Monitoring in Natural Environments

205 Pages·2012·5.49 MB·English

ETH Library
Stress arousal monitoring in
natural environments
Doctoral Thesis
Author(s):
Kusserow, Martin
Publication date:
2012
Permanent link:
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-7335107
Rights / license:
In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted
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Diss. ETH No. 
Stress Arousal Monitoring in
Natural Environments
A dissertation submitted to
ETH Zurich
for the degree of
Doctor of Sciences
presented by
Martin Kusserow
Dipl. El.-Ing., ETH Zurich
born  December 
citizen of Germany
accepted on the recommendation of
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Tr¨oster, examiner
Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Andr´e, co-examiner

Stress Arousal Monitoring in Natural Environments
Martin Kusserow
Diss. ETH No. 
Chapter 3:Copyright©reprinted,withpermission,fromIEEE.
Chapter 4:Copyright©reprinted,withpermission,fromACM.
Chapter 5:Copyright©reprinted,withpermission,fromSpringer.
Chapter 6:Copyright©reprinted,withpermission,fromTaylor&Francis.
Chapter7:Copyright©reprinted,withpermission,fromScience&Medicine.
Chapter 8:PreliminaryversionoftherevisedmanuscriptsubmittedtoIEEE.
First edition 
Published and printed by ETH Zurich,Switzerland
ISBN ----
©  Martin Kusserow
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, elec-
tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, orotherwise, without theprior
permission of theauthor.

To my parents and my grandfather Werner.

Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I wish to thank my advisor Prof. Gerhard Tr¨oster. He
continuously shared the support and enthusiasm in my work and provided
excellent research conditions. It was a pleasure to graduate from his lab.
Special thanksgo to Prof. Elisabeth Andr´e,theco-examiner of my thesis.
I owe my gratitude to Dr. Oliver Amft who provided me valuable scientific
guidancesinceIhavejoinedETHasaMasterstudent.Hehelpedshapingmy
research ideasand with whom sharingof authorshipin manypapersreflects
the closeness of our cooperation.
Iwouldliketosharethecreditofthisworkwiththestudentswhocontributed
throughsemesterprojectsandMaster’sthesis:VincentAarts,KevinBitterli,
FlorianDeragisch,ThomasFahrni,GeorgiaGiannopoulou,MircoRossi,Ste-
fan Scheidegger, and Fabian Schneiter.
FormerandpresentmembersoftheElectronicsLaboratoryhavemadethelab
agreatplacetowork.SpecialthanksgotomyofficematesDr.SilvanWehrli,
SinzianaMazilu,ZackZhu,andOrestiBan˜oswhofilledH81withjoyandthe
smell of fresh coffee. I am grateful to Urs Egger, AndreasNeiger, and Fredy
Mettler for sharing their expertise and time in technical and administrative
matters.IwishtoexpressmygratitudetoRuthZ¨ahringerforherprofessional
assistance and support.
It was a great pleasure to work with Dr. Victor Candia. I cordially thank
him and Prof. Horst Hildebrandt for taking me on a scientific and artistic
endeavourwithprofessionalmusicians.SpecialthanksgotoSimonAmmann,
Dr. Hanspeter Gubelmann, and all members of the Swiss ski jumping team
who allowed me to take part in an Olympic success story with two gold
medals.
Outside ETH, I thank all members of TV Oerlikon for regularly practising
mental hygiene through running, and Sara Pauli, my flatmate in Oerlikon.
WholeheartedthanksgotoStefanieFleischliforsharingthepositiveattitude,
encouragement, and joy of accepted papers.
Most importantly, heartfelt thanks go to my parents Birgit and Egbert for
the continuouslove and support they havegiven me all along.
Martin Kusserow

Contents
Abstract xiii
Zusammenfassung xv
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.1 The Stress Arousal Experience . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.2 Towards Stress Arousal Assistant Systems . . . . 3
1.2 Thesis Aims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Thesis Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2 Thesis Summary 9
2.1 Achievements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.1 On-Body Sensing Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.2 Context-Specific Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1.3 Free-Living Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3 Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.4 Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3 Monitoring Stress Arousal in the Wild 23
3.1 Measuring the Intangible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.1.1 Stress-ArousalMonitoring in the Wild . . . . . . 25
3.2 Stress-ArousalMonitoring Conditions . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3 On-body Sensing Modalities for Arousal Monitoring . . 27
3.4 Assessing Stress-Arousal in the Wild . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.5 Selected Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.5.1 Monitoring a Public Speaker . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.5.2 Monitoring a Musician on Stage . . . . . . . . . 32
3.5.3 Monitoring an Olympic Champion . . . . . . . . 34
3.5.4 Monitoring Free-Living Daily Activities . . . . . 37
3.6 Lessons Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40