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A Comprehensive Review on Stress Detection

Techniques
G. Shanmugasundaram1,S.Yazhini2 Hemapratha .E3, Nithya .S4
1
Associate Professor, Department of Information Technology,
Sri Manakula Vinayagar Engineering College, Puducherry
shanmugasundaram@smvec.ac.in
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science,
John Paul II College of Education, Puducherry
maniyazhini3@gmail.com
3, 4
UG Students, Department of Information Technology,
Sri Manakula Vinayagar Engineering College, Puducherry
hemapratha@gmail.com, nithyashanmugam03@gmail.com

Abstract—In a digitally dependent world, people are
progressively overwhelmed and upset with computer stress
that causes major problems in their daily lives. Working with
systems results in stress, particularly when an individual is
presented to it for a long term of time. Stress can cause serious
health problems such as heart disease, asthma, headaches,
depression and anxiety. Experts from various fields were
identified several situations that can distress a person who is
disposed to computer stress. Researchers have proved that
stress level can be detected and validated through Heart Rate,
Humidity response, Temperature response and Fuzzy Logic
algorithm. This article examines the various stress detection
techniques using the physiological parameters. It also explores
the key challenges and opportunities in stress detection
techniques.
Keywords—Stress Detection, Stress Prediction, Stress
Analysis, Stress Factors
I. INTRODUCTION
Internet of things (IoT) are impacted with human in both
purposely as well as unwittingly. There are several
applications of IoT which brings a beneficial factors that
ensures a healthy lifestyle of human beings by monitoring
and supervising their health issues [1]. IoT allows the
devices to collect important data and able to transfer that data
to the concerned person for real-time tracking by dropping
notification to the person about their critical conditions
through mobile application or any other linked devices. IoT
enables better accuracy, real-time tracking, alerting,
monitoring and reporting irrespective of any place or any
time. IoT in healthcare provides customized personal
service to the person under stress by utilizing individual
gadgets and frameworks that are even utilized by single
person.
Stress has become a tedious problem that leads to
distressing several people of different professions, different
life style, and different age groups. Stress is the body’s
physical, mental and emotional response caused by the
external factors (e.g., workplace stress, interpersonal
conflicts, pollution, toxin, physical environment, poor work
condition, injury, and trauma) as well as internal factors
(e.g., presence of illness and infection, lack of sleep, feeling
of depression, thoughts and anticipation). Stress occurs
when a person is exposed to threatening situations or
difficulty in handling fear and anxiety.
Stress detection has been predicted using various
methods and techniques. The methods and techniques
concerned with the succeeding stress recognition device with
any one or any of the accompanying inputs such as:
behavioural manifestation, physiological signal, physical
features, emotional manifestation, facial expression, voice
recognition and others [2]. In behavioural manifestation,
stress is detected by using video based feature extraction. On
the other hand, physical features are monitored by facial
expression recognition method and multimodal technique.
Nowadays, avoiding the stress in work environment is
impossible. If people should have aware of anxiety will
endowed to take some preventive actions so as to limit their
anxiety which could achieved the stress balance before it
cause to severe health issues. The reminder of the article is
organised as follows. Section 2 defines the physiological
factors to determine the stress rate. Section 3 discuss about
the sensors that has been used to predict the stress level.
Detailed review was carried out on stress detection are
described in Section 4.
II. STRESS RELATED FACTORS
Stress is an action in which body reacts to any kind of
threat. Stress is detected using various factors like
x Heart rate
x Temperature
x Humidity
x Speech
x Blood pressure
A. HeartRate
The stress can be identified using Heart rate variability
(HRV). HRV is regulated based on the Autonomous Nervous
System (ANS). HRV is assortment in time break of heart
beats. HRV is based on beat-to-beat interval. HRV varies for
every individual person based on their Health condition.
When HRV value is above 50 then that concern person is
said to be fit and healthy [3]. If HRV value is 14-25 then the
person is s-lightly tensed and if the HRV value is between 2
to 15, then the person is hyper tensed.
B. Temperature
The temperature of the body is used to detect the stress
rate of a person. The average physique temperature of an
individual is around 36°C - 37°C. During relaxation vaso-
dilation will warm our blood circulation but not usually be as

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hot as the body core temperature [4]. When the body
temperature rises it reduces the heat production whereas
when the body temperature falls then it leads to increase in
heat production. The general body temperature ranges from
15.5 °C - 37.2°C. The ranges of temperature which denotes
the condition of a person are as follows
Temperature Condition
Below 26°C Highly Tensed
26-29°C Slightly Tensed
29-32°C Mildly Calm
32-35°C Quietly Relaxed
Above 35°C Deeply Relaxed
C. Humidity
Skin temperature defines the accurate stress condition of
a person using Galvanic Skin Response(GSR).The GSR
electrodes collect the sweat of the person and transmit the
signal to the device that are connected to it [5]. The collected
data will be stored in the device or computer. If the data has
large GSR peaks then the person is said to be in depressed
state .If GSR peak is minimum then the person is said to be
in relaxed state.
D. Speech
Vocal signal is a standout amongst the most regular mode
of human correspondence, convey for the unequivocal
semantic substance as well as contain the understood
paralinguistic data about the speaker. Automatic recognition
of stress using voice of person is done by Discrete Wavelet
Transform (DWT) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN)
using machine learning algorithm [6]. The accuracy of stress
identification through speech is around 85%.
E. BloodPressure
Stressful situation can cause high blood pressure. Stress
can be determined using systolic pressure (BPs) and diastolic
pressure (BPd). If systolic pressure is greater than 130 and
diastolic pressure is greater than 110 then we can easily
determine that the person is in stressed state [5].
III. STRESS DETECTION SENSORS
Stress can be detected by using various physiological
sensors namely: heart rate (HR) sensor, Galvanic skin
response (GSR) sensor combination of HR and GSR,
Photoplethysmogram (PPG) Optical Sensor.
A. HeartRate (HR) Sensor
The heart rate sensor is primarily designed for the
recognition of stress dependent on the rule of
photoplethysmography (PPG) [2]. In order to detect the
change in blood volume, an optical technique is used and it
also applied the same principle in pulse oximeter. It works
with voltage supply from 2.5 to 3.6V and its operating
temperature ranges between -20°C and 85°C.
B. Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) Sensor
GSR works with the activity of electrical conductance of
skin, sweat and variation of moisture level of person. The
electrical skin conductance increases when the person starts
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to sweat and these can be measured by GSR sensors [2]. The
skin conductance of the person can be changed by the
emotions such as happiness, sadness, frustration, stress,
shock, depression and other similar emotions.
C. Combined HR and GSR Sensor
The HR sensor and GSR sensor are combined together in
such a way both will work without any conflict. According
to Anthonette D. Cantara et al.,[2] determining individual
stress level can be validated through Heart Rate and Galvanic
Skin Response. By using the combination of HR and GSR
sensor, the stress can be detected up to 72% of accuracy.
D. Photoplethysmogram (PPG) Optical Sensor
The Photoplethysmogram Optical Sensor is a
measurement technique used to predict the change in
pressure that occurs in the microvascular tissue [7]. The
change in blood volume is measured using Light-emitting
diode (LED) that has been either transmitted or reflected to a
photodiode.
E. Combined PPG and GSR Sensor
The combination of PPG and GSR are used for stress
detection obtained a promising results for stress and emotion
prediction [2]. The PPG sensors can also be used to predict
Pulse fluctuation and inter-beat periods estimations. Since
feelings like pressure, anxiety, frustration may expand
circulatory strain and relationship with HRV and pulse. PPG
framework comprises a finder and red or infrared light-
radiating diodes (LED) utilized as the light source to screen
the variation of tissue light power either through
transmission or from reflection.
IV. RELATED WORKS
Traditionally, by using qualitative and subjective tools
namely psychometric instruments and scales have been
detected stress based on humans rating stress levels. This
section describes about the work done on various
physiological parameters for detecting the stress.
A. Works based on HeartRate factor
P. Madhan Mohan et al., [8] proposed a work that
determines stress level of person by using heart rate
variability data. HRV can be predicted by using
Photoplethysmography (PPG) optical sensor. The
researchers divide the heart rate into three categories like
High Frequency, Low Frequency and very Low Frequency.
From variation of LF and HF ratio, the stress of the person is
determined.
Similarly Jie Zhang et al., aims to detect the stress level
using Heart Rate parameter [9]. The RR interval values are
calculated using Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal. RR values
are used to determine the true positive and negative rate.
SVM classifier is used to classify the positive and negative
rate. Distinguishing these two values, the stress level of a
person is identified. Since Sequential Backward Selection
(SBS) algorithm is used, more number of iterations are
performed.
B. Works based on Humidity factor
Jorn Bakker et al., proposed a work that the stress pattern
are identified using GSR data that has been collected from
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wearable watch-style stress measurement [10]. It aims to F. Works based on Temperature, Humidity and Speech
detect the relationship between the external factors that According to Virginia Sandulescu and Radu Dobrescu,
affecting stress and its occurrences. On the other hand it Wearable shirt worn by firefighters determine the stress
provides online or semi online detection mechanism used to condition using temperature, speech and humidity
alert the person to aware of their stress condition. Since it parameters [15]. The temperature and humidity of a person is
depends on the internet connectivity it does not provide the acquired using a sensor the Sensirion SHT7x family. From
efficient stress detection results in all time. these parameters the heat index can be calculated which is
used to determine the stress rate of a person. This research
C. Works based on HeartRate and Humidity parameters concentrates on detecting mental stress and also heat stress.
Alberto de Santos Sierra et al., [11] concentrates on In their project there is a limitation that the system was not
Heart rate and Humidity parameters for detection of stress tested and validated in real time scenario.
level together with fuzzy logic algorithm. The HR and GSR
signals were chosen dependent on their properties with G. Works based on HeartRate, Humidity and
respect to noninvasivity once attained and in light of the fact BloodPressure
that their variety is strongly identified with stress Nurdina Widanti et al., [5] the stress level can be detected
improvements. HR estimates the quantity of heart beat per with a combination of heart rate, blood pressure, GSR, heat
unit and GSR is measured using threshold, peaks of an and temperature. Their project one hand is connected with
individual. Analysing of HR and GSR data is used to the Galvanic skin response to determine the Humidity
determine the stress condition of a person. response. On the other hand pressure sensor (MPX5050DP)
is used to determine the heart rate and blood pressure of a
D. Works in combination of HeartRate and BloodPressure person. Stages of stress like relaxed, calm, tensed and stress
parameter are estimated below.
Lizawati Salahuddin et al., proposed a system using heart
rate variability by delineating the movement of autonomous Parameters
Condition
nervous system (ANS) to distinguish the psychological HR BP GSR H&T
pressure [12]. Stress Response Inventory (SRI) is used to
classify high and low stress group. Their project cluster bps>130
Stressed >100 >6 <33
analysis has been used to identify high stress group. The bps>110
main drawback of their project is, it does not show any 120/90 –
Tensed 90-100 4-7 33-35
significant difference among the age groups since it deals 130/110
with only Heart Rate Variability and BP.
110/75 –
Calm 70-90 2-4 35-36
Similarly Qi Li et al., [13] aims to detect the stress 120/85
periods and stressor events from the microblog. The stress 100/70 –
rate is predicated by analyzing the teen’s posting content, Relaxed 60-70 <2 36-37
110/75
time of posting and communication with people in the social
media. In their work stressor events and stress periods are
correlated to determine the stress level .Their main For the device improvement it is suggested to include
drawback, is to determine the stressor events historic additional parameters to improve precession.
contents are to be estimated.
H. Works based on HeartRate,Temperature, Humidity and
E. Works based on HeartRate, Humidity and Temperature BloodPressure
Monika Chauhan et al., proposed to detect the stress
Anthonette D. Cantara et al., proposed to define the
through the physiological information utilizing
stress level using a systems through physiological signal
electrocardiograph in various places and temperaments by
that results in greater accuracy [2]. Their project aims to various pre-preparing strategies [16]. By using classification
gather the data from validated Heart Rate and Temperature techniques such as Support Vector Machine, Decision Tree,
response, Humidity response. The final stress is detected Bayesian Network and Artificial Neural Network, the system
using fuzzy logic algorithm, since it was not able to can categorize the normal state and stress state of a person.
determine accurate stress level. It only capable of providing
accuracy of 72%. I. Works based on HeartRate ,Temperature,
Similarly Aruneema Das et al., has been proposed to BloodPressure and Speech
detect the stress using smart garment data [14]. The smart Jongyoon Choi et al., [17] aims to detect the mental stress
garment is integrated with woven sensors which produces and relaxation with selected number of physiological features
live data streams like heart rate, core temperature and such as electro dermal activity, different files of HRV, BP
humidity. MATLAB develops the GUI application software volume, speech, facial expression, pupil dilation, body
for displaying the stress rate of the person. The physiological gestures, electromyography and density of respiration based
factors like heart rate, temperature and humidity determines on wearable sensors. HRV is estimated by using pulse
the stress rate of a person with an acceptable rate. Since it is oximetry. Respiratory inductive plethysmography observes
easy to use by anyone with minimum training with the help the variation in thoracic or stomach segment by estimating
of GUI application but the equation for estimating the deviations in an electromagnetic field created by coils that
physiological parameters are quite complex. are inserted in a chest/stomach strap. The mental stress can
be obtained with success rate of 81%. However it does not
tells the stress rate based on the age groups.

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Researchers
P. Madhan Mohan et al., 2016[8]
Jie Zhang et al., 2017[9]
Jorn Bakker et al., 2011[10]
Alberto de Santos Sierra et al.,
2011[11]
Lizawati Salahuddin et al.,
2007[12]
Qi Li et al., 2016[13]
Anthonette D. Cantara et al.,
2016[2]
Aruneema Das et al., 2014[14]
Virginia Sandulescu and Radu
Dobrescu 2015[15]
Nurdina Widanti et al., 2015[5]
Monika Chauhan et al., 2017[16]
Jongyoon Choi et al., 2012[17]
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TABLE I: RECENT RESEARCH WORKS IN STRESS DETECTION TECHNIQUES
Contribution
Photoplethysmography (PPG) optical sensor is used to classify the
various category of heart rate.
Electrocardiogram (ECG) is used to determine the RR intervals.
From distinguishing the values produced from RR intervals the
stress is detected.
The wearable watch style collects the data from GSR sensor .It
aims to detect the relationship between the external factors that
affecting stress and its occurrences. The indication of stress is done
either in online or semi-online mechanism.
HR measures the heart rate and GSR value is measured using
peaks and threshold. By analyzing of these data ,the stress level is
determined
Cluster analysis is used to classify the high and low stress group.
The higher LF/HF ratio determines the high stress group.
Teen’s posting contents, posting time and interaction with friends
in microblog determine the stress.
Heart rate, Temperate response and Humidity response is used to
predict the stress rate of a person. In this project Fuzzy Logic
algorithm is used to examine the stress condition.
The smart garment is integrated with woven sensors which is used
to collect the data from the physiological parameters as a live
stream of inputs. GUI application acts as a user interface in which
user can communicate with the device easily.
Heat index is calculated using temperature, humidity and speech.
From wearable shirt the sensors collect the data to estimate the
stress
In their work, one hand is connected with GSR sensor and on the
other hand pressure sensor is connected to determine the stress
level. From the analysis of data relaxed, calm, and tensed and
stress condition can be determined.
The physiological parameters such as body temperature, GSR,
blood pressure determine the stress level of a person. The age,
gender and body condition are taken into account to determine the
accuracy of stress.
Density of respiration and HRV is used as a primitive parameter to
detect the stress level. With the help of RIP and pulse oximetry,
HRV and density of respiration is monitored. The success rate of
this project is about 81%.
Limitation
It does not provide accurate stress rate since it
deals with single physiological parameter heart
rate variability.
SBS algorithm increases the number of
iterations.
Internet connectivity is always required for
indication of stress
.
Techniques used to predict stress rate is not
sufficient.
The main drawback of this project is, it does
not show any significant difference among the
age groups since it deals with only Heart Rate
Variability.
Their main drawback, is to determine the
stressor events historic contents are to be
estimated.
Even though this project uses fuzzy logic
algorithm the accuracy of stress rate is about
72%.
The equation used in evaluating the
physiological parameters are quite complex.
The system was not tested and validated in real
time scenario.
Several tests are need to be performed for
acquiring GSR signal. And also additional
parameters are need to be added for more
precision.
Processing is quite complex since different
classification techniques has been used in real
time data.
It does not tells the stress rate based on the age
groups. The EDA sensor and Respiratory
module requires cautious manual alignment
toward the start of each exploratory session.
Therefore the design process is quite complex.
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The above Table I describes about various methods and physiological parameters used in stress detection and their
limitations.
x Even with relative evidences of the vigorous
TABLE II: COMPARISON OF RESEARCH WORKS USING PHYSIOLOGICAL character of parameters, there is still no
PARAMETERS
consensus about the most accurate parameter
Stress Related Factors for stress detection.
Researchers Heart Temper Blood
Rate ature
Humidity
Pressure
Speech
x Even though the combination of Heart rate,
Temperature and Humidity are used for stress
P. Madhan detection, the final result does not meet the
Mohan et al.,
2016[8]
acceptable rate.
The detection of stress is more accurate when the
Jie Zhang et al.,
combination of heart rate, temperature, humidity, blood
2017[9] pressure, vocal tone. It increases the accuracy of stress level.

V. CONCLUSION
Jorn Bakker et Research has been done to choose the best physiological
al., 2011[10]
parameters to use in stress prediction, how these parameters
are influenced by pressure and what might be the
appropriate framework or model to use in stress recognition.
Alberto de
Santos Sierra et In this article we present techniques to analyse and
al., 2011[11] recognize stress detection using various physiological
parameters. The various models and the accuracy of the
system to detect the stress rate are discussed along with the
Lizawati
Salahuddin et
factors. The comparative analysis of physiological
al., 2007[12] parameter for stress detection, research directions and
challenges are also briefed.

Qi Li et al.,
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