Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Measuring diurnal biorythms

Measuring biological change in real-time is important for behavioural economics, particularly when linked to mood and decision-making data. A number of the papers and ongoing projects in our research group requires the ability to do this (some recent papers here here and here ). We also conducted a pilot project in June 2008 looking at producing stress maps for Dublin (http://www.stressmapping.com/index.html ).

The Economist has an article recently looking at the use of new devices to quantify daily bio and mood rhythms.

Below are some useful links to devices that we are looking at in terms of adding them to ongoing research projects. Suggestions very welcome. I will use this post to put up some updates.

1. Suunto Heart Rate Monitors are used in training and sports.

2. The Bodymedia sensewear device measures GSR, among other things, and is worn as an armband

3. The affectiva device measures GSR in real-time

4. mybasis.com is promising to deliver a device that allows heart rate to be tracked from a wrist-device. This would be very useful as the chest-straps can be awkward for study participants.

5. Camntech offers another heart-rate device: "chest-worn monitoring device that records heart rate, Inter-Beat-Interval (IBI), and physical activity in one combined, light-weight waterproof unit. It is designed for capturing HRV data and for calculating and measuring Activity Energy Expenditure."

6. Featured in the Economist article, ginger.io, offers a platform for passive and active recording of real-time data mainly in healthcare settings.

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