Wearable Technologies for Electrodermal and Cardiac Activity Measurements: A Comparison between Fitbit Sense, Empatica E4 and Shimmer GSR3

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 23; no. 13; p. 5847
• Main Authors: Ronca, Vincenzo, Martinez-Levy, Ana C, Vozzi, Alessia, Giorgi, Andrea, Aricò, Pietro, Capotorto, Rossella, Borghini, Gianluca, Babiloni, Fabio, Di Flumeri, Gianluca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 23.06.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Arousal; Autonomic Nervous System; consumer wearables; electrodermal activity; Emotions; Fitness Trackers; Heart rate; Humans; Laboratories; Laboratory equipment; Neurophysiology; Parameters; photoplethysmography; Physiology; Reliability analysis; Reproducibility of Results; Tracking devices; Wearable computers; Wearable Electronic Devices; Wearable technology; Workloads; United States > US; photoplethysmography; electrodermal activity; consumer wearables
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s23135847

The capability of measuring specific neurophysiological and autonomic parameters plays a crucial role in the objective evaluation of a human's mental and emotional states. These human aspects are commonly known in the scientific literature to be involved in a wide range of processes, such as stress and arousal. These aspects represent a relevant factor especially in real and operational environments. Neurophysiological autonomic parameters, such as Electrodermal Activity (EDA) and Photoplethysmographic data (PPG), have been usually investigated through research-graded devices, therefore resulting in a high degree of invasiveness, which could negatively interfere with the monitored user's activity. For such a reason, in the last decade, recent consumer-grade wearable devices, usually designed for fitness-tracking purposes, are receiving increasing attention from the scientific community, and are characterized by a higher comfort, ease of use and, therefore, by a higher compatibility with daily-life environments. The present preliminary study was aimed at assessing the reliability of a consumer wearable device, i.e., the Fitbit Sense, with respect to a research-graded wearable, i.e., the Empatica E4 wristband, and a laboratory device, i.e., the Shimmer GSR3+. EDA and PPG data were collected among 12 participants while they performed multiple resting conditions. The results demonstrated that the EDA- and PPG-derived features computed through the wearable and research devices were positively and significantly correlated, while the reliability of the consumer device was significantly lower.