Galvanic Skin Response: A Physiological Sensor System for Affective Computing

Electro-dermal response of any bio-medical system is the change in electrical properties of skin due to variation in physiological and psychological conditions. The change is caused by the degree to which a person’s sweat glands are active. Psychological status of a person tends to make the glands active and this change the skin resistance. Drier the skin is, higher will be the skin resistance. This variation in skin resistance ranges from 5kΩ to 25kΩ. In the current work, a subject whose Galvanic skin response (GSR) is to be measured, has been shown/played a movie clipping, images or recorded audio signals. Depending upon the theme, emotion will be evoked in the subject. Due to the change in emotion, GSR varies. This variation in GSR is recorded for a fixed time interval. In the present work, a total of 75 subjects are selected. People from different age groups and social background, both male and female have been carefully considered. Data acquisition and analysis is carried out by using LabVIEW. The results obtained are convincing and follows the ground reality with a high level of accuracy. As the subject also gives the feedback about the emotions he/she experienced, the results obtained are validated.