An understatement: Knowing you’re about to be murdered is stressful.
Deepak Belur, a solar researcher on the verge of being murdered, in Breach of Trust, experiences the extreme stress of the moment:
“As Deepak began to understand his predicament, fear took hold . . . A slow, sinking sense of danger mixed with dread made his testicles contract and the pit of his stomach convulse. A chill ran up and down his spine and a strong shudder coursed through his physically-fit body. His eyes followed the black and red wires connected between the solar panels and the chair. Alarm bells exploded across the neurons inside his head and fear tightened its grip on him. He was hooked up to become the electrical load for the nearby solar panels serving as the source of electrical power, or they would be, when direct sunlight struck them at dawn.”
Deepak Belur, a solar researcher on the verge of being murdered, in Breach of Trust, experiences the extreme stress of the moment:
“As Deepak began to understand his predicament, fear took hold . . . A slow, sinking sense of danger mixed with dread made his testicles contract and the pit of his stomach convulse. A chill ran up and down his spine and a strong shudder coursed through his physically-fit body. His eyes followed the black and red wires connected between the solar panels and the chair. Alarm bells exploded across the neurons inside his head and fear tightened its grip on him. He was hooked up to become the electrical load for the nearby solar panels serving as the source of electrical power, or they would be, when direct sunlight struck them at dawn.”
In the real world, not everyone is about to be murdered, but such intense stress is serious business for our wellbeing. Stress has become a major health concern in a world that is constantly “on,” always demanding performance, as well as instant responses to a social-media-connected existence.
Health professionals identify two types of stress: acute and chronic. Acute stress is experienced by everyone at some point in his or her life, the type of stress arising from the demands and pressures of the moment and from those pressures expected in the near term.
What are they?
Some examples that we can all relate to, include: Test taking, public speaking, sports competitions, staying current on social media sites, and meeting new people.
Health professionals identify two types of stress: acute and chronic. Acute stress is experienced by everyone at some point in his or her life, the type of stress arising from the demands and pressures of the moment and from those pressures expected in the near term.
What are they?
Some examples that we can all relate to, include: Test taking, public speaking, sports competitions, staying current on social media sites, and meeting new people.
Chronic stress is the second type. It’s caused by ongoing (and what seem to be never-ending) pressures and demands, which typically include a person’s economic situation (“How am I going to pay the bills this month?”), troubles arising from troubled interpersonal relationships, and a deteriorating employment situation (many people hate their jobs). If left unchecked, chronic stress can have detrimental health consequences, including hypertension, depression, and heart disease, among some of the serious diseases.
As the authors of a recent IEEE paper [1], highlighting the rise of “affective computing,” made possible by the link established between our emotional states and physical health [2], wrote, “If chronic stress is allowed to proliferate, ongoing symptoms may reduce the quality of life for those experiencing this stress.” In their survey of the state of stress in an ever-increasing technological world, a number of modern day diagnostic tests, to accurately detect stress, were compared, including the use of wearables [3]. Wearables were cited for their portability and utility in helping us to monitor our vitals.
It is commonplace today, whenever measurement data supporting human welfare is needed, that electrical and computer engineers team together with clinical psychologists to develop simpler, faster, and easier-to-use techniques to measure stress. Once diagnosed, steps can be taken to alleviate the stressors.
“The technology used in affective computing exploits both physiological and physical manifestations of one’s affective state to determine current emotion,” the authors point out. “Six basic emotional states are deduced in affective computing: joy, anger, surprise, disgust, sadness, and fear. In addition to these basic emotions, other affects such as frustration and stress can be computed.”
And this is where the clinical psychology community has arrived, with the help of the engineering community [4], to deal with stress management. Recognizing stress and then developing a strategy to alleviate the stressors will lead to a better quality of life.
If murder doesn’t kill you, chronic stress sure will. It just takes a little longer, but the latter stressor can be mitigated.
[1] A Survey of Affective Computing for Stress Detection, Shalom Greene et al, IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine, October 2016, pp.44–56.
[2] The field of affective computing was established as a modern branch of computer science by Dr. Rosalind Picard, of MIT, when she published her November 1995 paper on the subject as it related to human-computer interfaces. Two main themes define affective computing: 1) detection and recognition of emotional information, and 2) simulation of emotion in computational devices.
[3] A fitness tracker, for example is a form of wearable, but many have tossed it aside since the purchase. More than a third of people who buy wearables, such as Fitbit or Nike Fuelband, abandon them within a few months. One researcher trained in experimental psychology is working to figure out what it will take to make fitness trackers motivate people to take charge of their health, and stay in charge of their stress levels, for example.
[4] Engineers have developed the sensor technology for stress detection over the years. These include EEG (electroencephalography), ECG (electrocardiography, formerly known as EKG), PPG (photoplethysmography that monitors blood activity including blood pressure), GSR (galvanic skin response), and AFEA (automated facial gesture analysis as well as body gestures), all of which have been evaluated for wearability and portability, accuracy, cost-effectiveness, low maintenance, and obtrusiveness. It turns out that PPG best fits all of these criteria, hence the prevalence of Fitbit-like devices today.
As the authors of a recent IEEE paper [1], highlighting the rise of “affective computing,” made possible by the link established between our emotional states and physical health [2], wrote, “If chronic stress is allowed to proliferate, ongoing symptoms may reduce the quality of life for those experiencing this stress.” In their survey of the state of stress in an ever-increasing technological world, a number of modern day diagnostic tests, to accurately detect stress, were compared, including the use of wearables [3]. Wearables were cited for their portability and utility in helping us to monitor our vitals.
It is commonplace today, whenever measurement data supporting human welfare is needed, that electrical and computer engineers team together with clinical psychologists to develop simpler, faster, and easier-to-use techniques to measure stress. Once diagnosed, steps can be taken to alleviate the stressors.
“The technology used in affective computing exploits both physiological and physical manifestations of one’s affective state to determine current emotion,” the authors point out. “Six basic emotional states are deduced in affective computing: joy, anger, surprise, disgust, sadness, and fear. In addition to these basic emotions, other affects such as frustration and stress can be computed.”
And this is where the clinical psychology community has arrived, with the help of the engineering community [4], to deal with stress management. Recognizing stress and then developing a strategy to alleviate the stressors will lead to a better quality of life.
If murder doesn’t kill you, chronic stress sure will. It just takes a little longer, but the latter stressor can be mitigated.
[1] A Survey of Affective Computing for Stress Detection, Shalom Greene et al, IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine, October 2016, pp.44–56.
[2] The field of affective computing was established as a modern branch of computer science by Dr. Rosalind Picard, of MIT, when she published her November 1995 paper on the subject as it related to human-computer interfaces. Two main themes define affective computing: 1) detection and recognition of emotional information, and 2) simulation of emotion in computational devices.
[3] A fitness tracker, for example is a form of wearable, but many have tossed it aside since the purchase. More than a third of people who buy wearables, such as Fitbit or Nike Fuelband, abandon them within a few months. One researcher trained in experimental psychology is working to figure out what it will take to make fitness trackers motivate people to take charge of their health, and stay in charge of their stress levels, for example.
[4] Engineers have developed the sensor technology for stress detection over the years. These include EEG (electroencephalography), ECG (electrocardiography, formerly known as EKG), PPG (photoplethysmography that monitors blood activity including blood pressure), GSR (galvanic skin response), and AFEA (automated facial gesture analysis as well as body gestures), all of which have been evaluated for wearability and portability, accuracy, cost-effectiveness, low maintenance, and obtrusiveness. It turns out that PPG best fits all of these criteria, hence the prevalence of Fitbit-like devices today.