Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Increased stress and anxiety can create a variety of problems within the human body, and can be especially detrimental to the immune system. Targeting stress relief prior to surgical operations can increase the ability of patients to heal faster. Non-pharmacological stress detection such as distraction using video games, music, and smartphone based behavioural interventions can deliver positive results without associated risks. Augmented/ Virtual Reality has been found to have specific benefits when used in stressful clinical settings, including, improved emotional well-being, increased positive mood shifts and decreased negative emotions. Shaftesbury Inc., in partnership with hospitals and clinics has been developing a Positive Distraction Entertainment System (PDES). The purpose of the system is to automatically detect stress level in users based on physiological signals (e.g. heartrate) and provide an adaptive experience, where the experience (e.g. a movie/game) is dynamically adapted based on the assessed stress level in users. Such a system can go beyond the realm of healthcare, providing high entertainment value through dynamic experience. However, regardless of the domain, the core challenge in the PDES system is to develop a solid algorithm to assess the stress/engagement level of users when experiencing an entertainment product. Merely utilizing a single physiological signal such as heartrate will not be enough to accurately assess the stress/engagement level. The purpose of this project is to develop a multimodal cloud-based machine learning framework for automatic stress/engagement level assessment for users from multiple physiological (e.g. heartrate, EMG, respiration) and behavioural signals (e.g. gesture, facial expression), and provide intuitive and interpretable visualization and analytics tools that provides non-technological stakeholders the ability to easily fine-tune such algorithms. The proposed research will help to position Canada as a leader in adopting advanced technologies such as XR and machine learning in healthcare and entertainment, while the resultant technology transfer to Canadian industry will strengthen Canada's global competitiveness and create positive impacts to Canadian economy and society.