Novel Machine Learning and Wearable Sensor Based Solutions for Smart Healthcare Monitoring

The advent of IoT has enabled the design of connected and integrated smart health monitoring systems. These health monitoring systems can be utilized for monitoring the mental and physical wellbeing of a person. Stress, anxiety, and hypertension are the major elements responsible for the plethora of physical and mental illnesses. In this context, the older population demands special attention because of the several age-related complications that exacerbate the effects of stress, anxiety, and hypertension. Monitoring stress, anxiety, and blood pressure regularly can prevent long-term damage by initiating necessary intervention or clinical treatment beforehand. This will improve the quality of life and reduce the burden on caregivers and the cost of healthcare. Therefore, this thesis explores novel technological solutions for real-time monitoring of stress, anxiety, and blood pressure using unobtrusive wearable sensors and machine learning techniques. The first contribution of this thesis is the experimental data collection of 50 healthy older adults, based on which, the works on stress detection and anxiety detection have been developed. The data collection procedure lasted for more than a year. We have collected physiological signals, salivary cortisol, and self-reported questionnaire feedback during the study. Salivary cortisol is an established clinical biomarker for physiological stress. Hence, a stress detection model that is trained to distinguish between the stressed and not-stressed states as indicated by the increase in cortisol level has the potential to facilitate clinical level diagnosis of stress from the comfort of their own home. The second contribution of the thesis is the development of a stress detection model based on fingertip sensors. We have extracted features from Electrodermal Activity (EDA) and Blood Volume Pulse (BVP) signals obtained from fingertip EDA and Photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensors to train machine learning algorithms for distinguishing between stressed and not-stressed states. We have evaluated the performance of four traditional machine learning algorithms and one deep-learning-based Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) classifier. Results and analysis showed that the proposed LSTM classifier performed equally well as the traditional machine learning models. The third contribution of the thesis is to evaluate an integrated system of wrist-worn sensors for stress detection. We have evaluated four signal streams, EDA, BVP, Inter-Beat Interval (IBI), and Skin Temperature (ST) signals from EDA, PPG, and ST sensors. A random forest classifier was used for distinguishing between the stressed and not-stressed states. Results and analysis showed that incorporating features from different signals was able to reduce the misclassification rate of the classifier. Further, we have also prototyped the integration of the proposed wristband-based stress detection system in a consumer end device with voice capabilities. The fourth contribution of the thesis is the design of an anxiety detection model that uses features from a single wearable sensor and a context feature to improve the performance of the classification model. Using a context feature instead of integrating other physiological features for improving the performance of the model can reduce the complexity and cost of the anxiety detection model. In our proposed work, we have used a simple experimental context feature to highlight the importance of context in the accurate detection of anxious states. Our results and analysis have shown that with the addition of the context-based feature, the classifier was able to reduce misclassification by increasing the confidence of the decision. The final and the fifth contribution of the thesis is the validation of a proposed computational framework for the blood pressure estimation model. The proposed framework uses features from the PPG signal to estimate the systolic and diastolic blood pressure values using advanced regression techniques

A wearable system for stress detection through physiological data analysis

In the last years the impact of stress on the society has been increased, resulting in 77% of people that regularly experiences physical symptoms caused by stress with a negative impact on their personal and professional life, especially in aging working population. This paper aims to demonstrate the feasibility of detection and monitoring of stress, inducted by mental stress tests, through the analysis of physiological data collected by wearable sensors. In fact, the physiological features extracted from heart rate variability and galvanic skin response showed significant differences between stressed and not stressed people. Starting from the physiological data, the work provides also a cluster analysis based on Principal Components (PCs) able to showed a visual discrimination of stressed and relaxed groups. The developed system would support active ageing, monitoring and managing the level of stress in ageing workers and allowing them to reduce the burden of stress related to the workload on the basis of personalized interventions

Drowsiness detection in drivers with a smartwatch

The main objective of this work is to detect early if a driver shows symptoms of sleepiness that indicate that he/she is falling asleep and, in that case, generate an alert to wake him/her up. To solve this problem, an application has been designed that collects various parameters, through a smartwatch while driving. First, the application detects the driving action. Then, it collects information about the most significant physiological variables of a person while driving. On the other hand, given the high level of sensitivity of the data managed in the designed application, in this work special attention has been paid to the security of the implementation. The proposed solution improves road safety, reducing the number of accidents caused by drowsiness while driving

Multidimensional embedded MEMS motion detectors for wearable mechanocardiography and 4D medical imaging

Background: Cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death. Of these deaths, almost 80% are due to coronary artery disease (CAD) and cerebrovascular disease. Multidimensional microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors allow measuring the mechanical movement of the heart muscle offering an entirely new and innovative solution to evaluate cardiac rhythm and function. Recent advances in miniaturized motion sensors present an exciting opportunity to study novel device-driven and functional motion detection systems in the areas of both cardiac monitoring and biomedical imaging, for example, in computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET). Methods: This Ph.D. work describes a new cardiac motion detection paradigm and measurement technology based on multimodal measuring tools — by tracking the heart’s kinetic activity using micro-sized MEMS sensors — and novel computational approaches — by deploying signal processing and machine learning techniques—for detecting cardiac pathological disorders. In particular, this study focuses on the capability of joint gyrocardiography (GCG) and seismocardiography (SCG) techniques that constitute the mechanocardiography (MCG) concept representing the mechanical characteristics of the cardiac precordial surface vibrations. Results: Experimental analyses showed that integrating multisource sensory data resulted in precise estimation of heart rate with an accuracy of 99% (healthy, n=29), detection of heart arrhythmia (n=435) with an accuracy of 95-97%, ischemic disease indication with approximately 75% accuracy (n=22), as well as significantly improved quality of four-dimensional (4D) cardiac PET images by eliminating motion related inaccuracies using MEMS dual gating approach. Tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) analysis of GCG (healthy, n=9) showed promising results for measuring the cardiac timing intervals and myocardial deformation changes. Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrate clinical potential of MEMS motion sensors in cardiology that may facilitate in time diagnosis of cardiac abnormalities. Multidimensional MCG can effectively contribute to detecting atrial fibrillation (AFib), myocardial infarction (MI), and CAD. Additionally, MEMS motion sensing improves the reliability and quality of cardiac PET imaging.Moniulotteisten sulautettujen MEMS-liiketunnistimien käyttö sydänkardiografiassa sekä lääketieteellisessä 4D-kuvantamisessa Tausta: Sydän- ja verisuonitaudit ovat yleisin kuolinsyy. Näistä kuolemantapauksista lähes 80% johtuu sepelvaltimotaudista (CAD) ja aivoverenkierron häiriöistä. Moniulotteiset mikroelektromekaaniset järjestelmät (MEMS) mahdollistavat sydänlihaksen mekaanisen liikkeen mittaamisen, mikä puolestaan tarjoaa täysin uudenlaisen ja innovatiivisen ratkaisun sydämen rytmin ja toiminnan arvioimiseksi. Viimeaikaiset teknologiset edistysaskeleet mahdollistavat uusien pienikokoisten liiketunnistusjärjestelmien käyttämisen sydämen toiminnan tutkimuksessa sekä lääketieteellisen kuvantamisen, kuten esimerkiksi tietokonetomografian (CT) ja positroniemissiotomografian (PET), tarkkuuden parantamisessa. Menetelmät: Tämä väitöskirjatyö esittelee uuden sydämen kineettisen toiminnan mittaustekniikan, joka pohjautuu MEMS-anturien käyttöön. Uudet laskennalliset lähestymistavat, jotka perustuvat signaalinkäsittelyyn ja koneoppimiseen, mahdollistavat sydämen patologisten häiriöiden havaitsemisen MEMS-antureista saatavista signaaleista. Tässä tutkimuksessa keskitytään erityisesti mekanokardiografiaan (MCG), joihin kuuluvat gyrokardiografia (GCG) ja seismokardiografia (SCG). Näiden tekniikoiden avulla voidaan mitata kardiorespiratorisen järjestelmän mekaanisia ominaisuuksia. Tulokset: Kokeelliset analyysit osoittivat, että integroimalla usean sensorin dataa voidaan mitata syketiheyttä 99% (terveillä n=29) tarkkuudella, havaita sydämen rytmihäiriöt (n=435) 95-97%, tarkkuudella, sekä havaita iskeeminen sairaus noin 75% tarkkuudella (n=22). Lisäksi MEMS-kaksoistahdistuksen avulla voidaan parantaa sydämen 4D PET-kuvan laatua, kun liikeepätarkkuudet voidaan eliminoida paremmin. Doppler-kuvantamisessa (TDI, Tissue Doppler Imaging) GCG-analyysi (terveillä, n=9) osoitti lupaavia tuloksia sydänsykkeen ajoituksen ja intervallien sekä sydänlihasmuutosten mittaamisessa. Päätelmä: Tämän tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että kardiologisilla MEMS-liikeantureilla on kliinistä potentiaalia sydämen toiminnallisten poikkeavuuksien diagnostisoinnissa. Moniuloitteinen MCG voi edistää eteisvärinän (AFib), sydäninfarktin (MI) ja CAD:n havaitsemista. Lisäksi MEMS-liiketunnistus parantaa sydämen PET-kuvantamisen luotettavuutta ja laatua

IoT DEVELOPMENT FOR HEALTHY INDEPENDENT LIVING

The rise of internet connected devices has enabled the home with a vast amount of enhancements to make life more convenient. These internet connected devices can be used to form a community of devices known as the internet of things (IoT). There is great value in IoT devices to promote healthy independent living for older adults. Fall-related injuries has been one of the leading causes of death in older adults. For example, every year more than a third of people over 65 in the U.S. experience a fall, of which up to 30 percent result in moderate to severe injury. Therefore, this thesis proposes an IoT-based fall detection system for smart home environments that not only to send out alerts, but also launches interaction models, such as voice assistance and camera monitoring. Such connectivity could allow older adults to interact with the system without concern of a learning curve. The proposed IoT-based fall detection system will enable family and caregivers to be immediately notified of the event and remotely monitor the individual. Integrated within a smart home environment, the proposed IoT-based fall detection system can improve the quality of life among older adults. Along with the physical concerns of health, psychological stress is also a great concern among older adults. Stress has been linked to emotional and physical conditions such as depression, anxiety, heart attacks, stroke, etc. Increased susceptibility to stress may accelerate cognitive decline resulting in conversion of cognitively normal older adults to MCI (Mild Cognitive Impairment), and MCI to dementia. Thus, if stress can be measured, there can be countermeasures put in place to reduce stress and its negative effects on the psychological and physical health of older adults. This thesis presents a framework that can be used to collect and pre-process physiological data for the purpose of validating galvanic skin response (GSR), heart rate (HR), and emotional valence (EV) measurements against the cortisol and self-reporting benchmarks for stress detection. The results of this framework can be used for feature extraction to feed into a regression model for validating each combination of physiological measurement. Also, the potential of this framework to automate stress protocols like the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) could pave the way for an IoT-based platform for automated stress detection and management

시계열 데이터 패턴 분석을 위한 종단 심층 학습망 설계 방법론

학위논문 (박사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 공과대학 컴퓨터공학부, 2019. 2. 장병탁.Pattern recognition within time series data became an important avenue of research in artificial intelligence following the paradigm shift of the fourth industrial revolution. A number of studies related to this have been conducted over the past few years, and research using deep learning techniques are becoming increasingly popular. Due to the nonstationary, nonlinear and noisy nature of time series data, it is essential to design an appropriate model to extract its significant features for pattern recognition. This dissertation not only discusses the study of pattern recognition using various hand-crafted feature engineering techniques using physiological time series signals, but also suggests an end-to-end deep learning design methodology without any feature engineering. Time series signal can be classified into signals having periodic and non-periodic characteristics in the time domain. This thesis proposes two end-to-end deep learning design methodologies for pattern recognition of periodic and non-periodic signals. The first proposed deep learning design methodology is Deep ECGNet. Deep ECGNet offers a design scheme for an end-to-end deep learning model using periodic characteristics of Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. ECG, recorded from the electrophysiologic patterns of heart muscle during heartbeat, could be a promising candidate to provide a biomarker to estimate event-based stress level. Conventionally, the beat-to-beat alternations, heart rate variability (HRV), from ECG have been utilized to monitor the mental stress status as well as the mortality of cardiac patients. These HRV parameters have the disadvantage of having a 5-minute measurement period. In this thesis, human's stress states were estimated without special hand-crafted feature engineering using only 10-second interval data with the deep learning model. The design methodology of this model incorporates the periodic characteristics of the ECG signal into the model. The main parameters of 1D CNNs and RNNs reflecting the periodic characteristics of ECG were updated corresponding to the stress states. The experimental results proved that the proposed method yielded better performance than those of the existing HRV parameter extraction methods and spectrogram methods. The second proposed methodology is an automatic end-to-end deep learning design methodology using Bayesian optimization for non-periodic signals. Electroencephalogram (EEG) is elicited from the central nervous system (CNS) to yield genuine emotional states, even at the unconscious level. Due to the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of EEG signals, spectral analysis in frequency domain has been conventionally applied to EEG studies. As a general methodology, EEG signals are filtered into several frequency bands using Fourier or wavelet analyses and these band features are then fed into a classifier. This thesis proposes an end-to-end deep learning automatic design method using optimization techniques without this basic feature engineering. Bayesian optimization is a popular optimization technique for machine learning to optimize model hyperparameters. It is often used in optimization problems to evaluate expensive black box functions. In this thesis, we propose a method to perform whole model hyperparameters and structural optimization by using 1D CNNs and RNNs as basic deep learning models and Bayesian optimization. In this way, this thesis proposes the Deep EEGNet model as a method to discriminate human emotional states from EEG signals. Experimental results proved that the proposed method showed better performance than that of conventional method based on the conventional band power feature method. In conclusion, this thesis has proposed several methodologies for time series pattern recognition problems from the feature engineering-based conventional methods to the end-to-end deep learning design methodologies with only raw time series signals. Experimental results showed that the proposed methodologies can be effectively applied to pattern recognition problems using time series data.시계열 데이터의 패턴 인식 문제는 4차 산업 혁명의 패러다임 전환과 함께 매우 중요한 인공 지능의 한 분야가 되었다. 이에 따라, 지난 몇 년간 이와 관련된 많은 연구들이 이루어져 왔으며, 최근에는 심층 학습망 (deep learning networks) 모델을 이용한 연구들이 주를 이루어 왔다. 시계열 데이터는 비정상, 비선형 그리고 잡음 (nonstationary, nonlinear and noisy) 특성으로 인하여 시계열 데이터의 패턴 인식 수행을 위해선, 데이터의 주요한 특징점을 추출하기 위한 최적화된 모델의 설계가 필수적이다. 본 논문은 대표적인 시계열 데이터인 생체 신호를 사용하여 여러 특징 벡터 추출 방법 (hand-crafted feature engineering methods)을 이용한 패턴 인식 기법에 대하여 논할 뿐만 아니라, 궁극적으로는 특징 벡터 추출 과정이 없는 종단 심층 학습망 설계 방법론에 대한 연구 내용을 담고 있다. 시계열 신호는 시간 축 상에서 크게 주기적 신호와 비주기적 신호로 구분할 수 있는데, 본 연구는 이러한 두 유형의 신호들에 대한 패턴 인식을 위해 두 가지 종단 심층 학습망에 대한 설계 방법론을 제안한다. 첫 번째 제안된 방법론을 이용해 설계된 모델은 신호의 주기적 특성을 이용한 Deep ECGNet이다. 심장 근육의 전기 생리학적 패턴으로부터 기록된 심전도 (Electrocardiogram, ECG)는 이벤트 기반 스트레스 수준을 추정하기 위한 척도 (bio marker)를 제공하는 유효한 데이터가 될 수 있다. 전통적으로 심전도의 심박수 변동성 (Herat Rate Variability, HRV) 매개변수 (parameter)는 심장 질환 환자의 정신적 스트레스 상태 및 사망률을 모니터링하는 데 사용되었다. 하지만, 표준 심박수 변동성 매개 변수는 측정 주기가 5분 이상으로, 측정 시간이 길다는 단점이 있다. 본 논문에서는 심층 학습망 모델을 이용하여 10초 간격의 ECG 데이터만을 이용하여, 추가적인 특징 벡터의 추출 과정 없이 인간의 스트레스 상태를 인식할 수 있음을 보인다. 제안된 설계 기법은 ECG 신호의 주기적 특성을 모델에 반영하였는데, ECG의 은닉 특징 추출기로 사용된 1D CNNs 및 RNNs 모델의 주요 매개 변수에 주기적 특성을 반영함으로써, 한 주기 신호의 스트레스 상태에 따른 주요 특징점을 종단 학습망 내부적으로 추출할 수 있음을 보였다. 실험 결과 제안된 방법이 기존 심박수 변동성 매개변수와 spectrogram 추출 기법 기반의 패턴 인식 방법보다 좋은 성능을 나타내고 있음을 확인할 수 있었다. 두 번째 제안된 방법론은 비 주기적이며 비정상, 비선형 그리고 잡음 특성을 지닌 신호의 패턴인식을 위한 최적 종단 심층 학습망 자동 설계 방법론이다. 뇌파 신호 (Electroencephalogram, EEG)는 중추 신경계 (CNS)에서 발생되어 무의식 상태에서도 본연의 감정 상태를 나타내는데, EEG 신호의 낮은 신호 대 잡음비 (SNR)로 인해 뇌파를 이용한 감정 상태 판정을 위해서 주로 주파수 영역의 스펙트럼 분석이 뇌파 연구에 적용되어 왔다. 통상적으로 뇌파 신호는 푸리에 (Fourier) 또는 웨이블렛 (wavelet) 분석을 사용하여 여러 주파수 대역으로 필터링 된다. 이렇게 추출된 주파수 특징 벡터는 보통 얕은 학습 분류기 (shallow machine learning classifier)의 입력으로 사용되어 패턴 인식을 수행하게 된다. 본 논문에서는 이러한 기본적인 특징 벡터 추출 과정이 없는 베이지안 최적화 (Bayesian optimization) 기법을 이용한 종단 심층 학습망 자동 설계 기법을 제안한다. 베이지안 최적화 기법은 초 매개변수 (hyperparamters)를 최적화하기 위한 기계 학습 분야의 대표적인 최적화 기법인데, 최적화 과정에서 평가 시간이 많이 소요되는 목적 함수 (expensive black box function)를 갖고 있는 최적화 문제에 적합하다. 이러한 베이지안 최적화를 이용하여 기본적인 학습 모델인 1D CNNs 및 RNNs의 전체 모델의 초 매개변수 및 구조적 최적화를 수행하는 방법을 제안하였으며, 제안된 방법론을 바탕으로 Deep EEGNet이라는 인간의 감정상태를 판별할 수 있는 모델을 제안하였다. 여러 실험을 통해 제안된 모델이 기존의 주파수 특징 벡터 (band power feature) 추출 기법 기반의 전통적인 감정 패턴 인식 방법보다 좋은 성능을 나타내고 있음을 확인할 수 있었다. 결론적으로 본 논문은 시계열 데이터를 이용한 패턴 인식문제를 여러 특징 벡터 추출 기법 기반의 전통적인 방법을 통해 설계하는 방법부터, 추가적인 특징 벡터 추출 과정 없이 원본 데이터만을 이용하여 종단 심층 학습망을 설계하는 방법까지 제안하였다. 또한, 다양한 실험을 통해 제안된 방법론이 시계열 신호 데이터를 이용한 패턴 인식 문제에 효과적으로 적용될 수 있음을 보였다.Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Pattern Recognition in Time Series 1 1.2 Major Problems in Conventional Approaches 7 1.3 The Proposed Approach and its Contribution 8 1.4 Thesis Organization 10 Chapter 2 Related Works 12 2.1 Pattern Recognition in Time Series using Conventional Methods 12 2.1.1 Time Domain Features 12 2.1.2 Frequency Domain Features 14 2.1.3 Signal Processing based on Multi-variate Empirical Mode Decomposition (MEMD) 15 2.1.4 Statistical Time Series Model (ARIMA) 18 2.2 Fundamental Deep Learning Algorithms 20 2.2.1 Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) 20 2.2.2 Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) 22 2.3 Hyper Parameters and Structural Optimization Techniques 24 2.3.1 Grid and Random Search Algorithms 24 2.3.2 Bayesian Optimization 25 2.3.3 Neural Architecture Search 28 2.4 Research Trends related to Time Series Data 29 2.4.1 Generative Model of Raw Audio Waveform 30 Chapter 3 Preliminary Researches: Patten Recognition in Time Series using Various Feature Extraction Methods 31 3.1 Conventional Methods using Time and Frequency Features: Motor Imagery Brain Response Classification 31 3.1.1 Introduction 31 3.1.2 Methods 32 3.1.3 Ensemble Classification Method (Stacking & AdaBoost) 32 3.1.4 Sensitivity Analysis 33 3.1.5 Classification Results 36 3.2 Statistical Feature Extraction Methods: ARIMA Model Based Feature Extraction Methodology 38 3.2.1 Introduction 38 3.2.2 ARIMA Model 38 3.2.3 Signal Processing 39 3.2.4 ARIMA Model Conformance Test 40 3.2.5 Experimental Results 40 3.2.6 Summary 43 3.3 Application on Specific Time Series Data: Human Stress States Recognition using Ultra-Short-Term ECG Spectral Feature 44 3.3.1 Introduction 44 3.3.2 Experiments 45 3.3.3 Classification Methods 49 3.3.4 Experimental Results 49 3.3.5 Summary 56 Chapter 4 Master Framework for Pattern Recognition in Time Series 57 4.1 The Concept of the Proposed Framework for Pattern Recognition in Time Series 57 4.1.1 Optimal Basic Deep Learning Models for the Proposed Framework 57 4.2 Two Categories for Pattern Recognition in Time Series Data 59 4.2.1 The Proposed Deep Learning Framework for Periodic Time Series Signals 59 4.2.2 The Proposed Deep Learning Framework for Non-periodic Time Series Signals 61 4.3 Expanded Models of the Proposed Master Framework for Pattern Recogntion in Time Series 63 Chapter 5 Deep Learning Model Design Methodology for Periodic Signals using Prior Knowledge: Deep ECGNet 65 5.1 Introduction 65 5.2 Materials and Methods 67 5.2.1 Subjects and Data Acquisition 67 5.2.2 Conventional ECG Analysis Methods 72 5.2.3 The Initial Setup of the Deep Learning Architecture 75 5.2.4 The Deep ECGNet 78 5.3 Experimental Results 83 5.4 Summary 98 Chapter 6 Deep Learning Model Design Methodology for Non-periodic Time Series Signals using Optimization Techniques: Deep EEGNet 100 6.1 Introduction 100 6.2 Materials and Methods 104 6.2.1 Subjects and Data Acquisition 104 6.2.2 Conventional EEG Analysis Methods 106 6.2.3 Basic Deep Learning Units and Optimization Technique 108 6.2.4 Optimization for Deep EEGNet 109 6.2.5 Deep EEGNet Architectures using the EEG Channel Grouping Scheme 111 6.3 Experimental Results 113 6.4 Summary 124 Chapter 7 Concluding Remarks 126 7.1 Summary of Thesis and Contributions 126 7.2 Limitations of the Proposed Methods 128 7.3 Suggestions for Future Works 129 Bibliography 131 초 록 139Docto

Learning deep physiological models of affect

Feature extraction and feature selection are crucial phases in the process of affective modeling. Both, however, incorporate substantial limitations that hinder the development of reliable and accurate models of affect. For the purpose of modeling affect manifested through physiology, this paper builds on recent advances in machine learning with deep learning (DL) approaches. The efficiency of DL algorithms that train artificial neural network models is tested and compared against standard feature extraction and selection approaches followed in the literature. Results on a game data corpus — containing players’ physiological signals (i.e. skin conductance and blood volume pulse) and subjective self-reports of affect — reveal that DL outperforms manual ad-hoc feature extraction as it yields significantly more accurate affective models. Moreover, it appears that DL meets and even outperforms affective models that are boosted by automatic feature selection, for several of the scenarios examined. As the DL method is generic and applicable to any affective modeling task, the key findings of the paper suggest that ad-hoc feature extraction and selection — to a lesser degree — could be bypassed.The authors would like to thank Tobias Mahlmann for his work on the development and administration of the cluster used to run the experiments. Special thanks for proofreading goes to Yana Knight. Thanks also go to the Theano development team, to all participants in our experiments, and to Ubisoft, NSERC and Canada Research Chairs for funding. This work is funded, in part, by the ILearnRW (project no: 318803) and the C2Learn (project no. 318480) FP7 ICT EU projects.peer-reviewe

Signal Processing of Multimodal Mobile Lifelogging Data towards Detecting Stress in Real-World Driving

Stress is a negative emotion that is part of everyday life. However, frequent episodes or prolonged periods of stress can be detrimental to long-term health. Nevertheless, developing self-awareness is an important aspect of fostering effective ways to self-regulate these experiences. Mobile lifelogging systems provide an ideal platform to support self-regulation of stress by raising awareness of negative emotional states via continuous recording of psychophysiological and behavioural data. However, obtaining meaningful information from large volumes of raw data represents a significant challenge because these data must be accurately quantified and processed before stress can be detected. This work describes a set of algorithms designed to process multiple streams of lifelogging data for stress detection in the context of real world driving. Two data collection exercises have been performed where multimodal data, including raw cardiovascular activity and driving information, were collected from twenty-one people during daily commuter journeys. Our approach enabled us to 1) pre-process raw physiological data to calculate valid measures of heart rate variability, a significant marker of stress, 2) identify/correct artefacts in the raw physiological data and 3) provide a comparison between several classifiers for detecting stress. Results were positive and ensemble classification models provided a maximum accuracy of 86.9% for binary detection of stress in the real-world

Methods and techniques for analyzing human factors facets on drivers

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorWith millions of cars moving daily, driving is the most performed activity worldwide. Unfortunately, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), every year, around 1.35 million people worldwide die from road traffic accidents and, in addition, between 20 and 50 million people are injured, placing road traffic accidents as the second leading cause of death among people between the ages of 5 and 29. According to WHO, human errors, such as speeding, driving under the influence of drugs, fatigue, or distractions at the wheel, are the underlying cause of most road accidents. Global reports on road safety such as "Road safety in the European Union. Trends, statistics, and main challenges" prepared by the European Commission in 2018 presented a statistical analysis that related road accident mortality rates and periods segmented by hours and days of the week. This report revealed that the highest incidence of mortality occurs regularly in the afternoons during working days, coinciding with the period when the volume of traffic increases and when any human error is much more likely to cause a traffic accident. Accordingly, mitigating human errors in driving is a challenge, and there is currently a growing trend in the proposal for technological solutions intended to integrate driver information into advanced driving systems to improve driver performance and ergonomics. The study of human factors in the field of driving is a multidisciplinary field in which several areas of knowledge converge, among which stand out psychology, physiology, instrumentation, signal treatment, machine learning, the integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and the design of human-machine communication interfaces. The main objective of this thesis is to exploit knowledge related to the different facets of human factors in the field of driving. Specific objectives include identifying tasks related to driving, the detection of unfavorable cognitive states in the driver, such as stress, and, transversely, the proposal for an architecture for the integration and coordination of driver monitoring systems with other active safety systems. It should be noted that the specific objectives address the critical aspects in each of the issues to be addressed. Identifying driving-related tasks is one of the primary aspects of the conceptual framework of driver modeling. Identifying maneuvers that a driver performs requires training beforehand a model with examples of each maneuver to be identified. To this end, a methodology was established to form a data set in which a relationship is established between the handling of the driving controls (steering wheel, pedals, gear lever, and turn indicators) and a series of adequately identified maneuvers. This methodology consisted of designing different driving scenarios in a realistic driving simulator for each type of maneuver, including stop, overtaking, turns, and specific maneuvers such as U-turn and three-point turn. From the perspective of detecting unfavorable cognitive states in the driver, stress can damage cognitive faculties, causing failures in the decision-making process. Physiological signals such as measurements derived from the heart rhythm or the change of electrical properties of the skin are reliable indicators when assessing whether a person is going through an episode of acute stress. However, the detection of stress patterns is still an open problem. Despite advances in sensor design for the non-invasive collection of physiological signals, certain factors prevent reaching models capable of detecting stress patterns in any subject. This thesis addresses two aspects of stress detection: the collection of physiological values during stress elicitation through laboratory techniques such as the Stroop effect and driving tests; and the detection of stress by designing a process flow based on unsupervised learning techniques, delving into the problems associated with the variability of intra- and inter-individual physiological measures that prevent the achievement of generalist models. Finally, in addition to developing models that address the different aspects of monitoring, the orchestration of monitoring systems and active safety systems is a transversal and essential aspect in improving safety, ergonomics, and driving experience. Both from the perspective of integration into test platforms and integration into final systems, the problem of deploying multiple active safety systems lies in the adoption of monolithic models where the system-specific functionality is run in isolation, without considering aspects such as cooperation and interoperability with other safety systems. This thesis addresses the problem of the development of more complex systems where monitoring systems condition the operability of multiple active safety systems. To this end, a mediation architecture is proposed to coordinate the reception and delivery of data flows generated by the various systems involved, including external sensors (lasers, external cameras), cabin sensors (cameras, smartwatches), detection models, deliberative models, delivery systems and machine-human communication interfaces. Ontology-based data modeling plays a crucial role in structuring all this information and consolidating the semantic representation of the driving scene, thus allowing the development of models based on data fusion.I would like to thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for granting me the predoctoral fellowship BES-2016-078143 corresponding to the project TRA2015-63708-R, which provided me the opportunity of conducting all my Ph. D activities, including completing an international internship.Programa de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología Informática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: José María Armingol Moreno.- Secretario: Felipe Jiménez Alonso.- Vocal: Luis Mart