The University of Barcelona will develop a technology to measure stress and emotional state in people with communication difficulties.
Pathologies such as cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease, among others, hinder the ability to express emotions or stressful situations, which is essential in our daily lives. A team from the University of Barcelona (UB) is participating in an ambitious public-private consortium to develop an innovative tool that, based on biometric markers, is capable of diagnosing the emotional state and stress of the user and transmitting this information easily and efficiently to their environment.
‘This advance will contribute significantly to overcoming the communication barriers of people with disabilities, leading to substantial improvements in the quality of life of both users and their families and caregivers,’ says Jordi Colomer, professor in the Department of Electronic and Biomedical Engineering in the Faculty of Physics at the UB, who together with Professor Manel Puig and researcher Pere Maribel, both from the same department, form the UB team in the project. The company 3DThinks coordinates this consortium, which also includes researchers from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC).
Biomarkers of emotional state
The technology will be composed of minimally invasive sensors that will continuously analyse different chemical biomarkers secreted by the human body, involved in situations of stress or emotional intensity.
In this way, the device will wirelessly transmit the information collected to a data capture and analysis platform that will automatically diagnose the state of people who are unable to communicate it in a conventional way. ‘The aim is to facilitate the measurement and management of data in medical environments, research centres and foundations, allowing an accurate assessment of the emotional well-being of users, benefits that in the future could be extended to people with depressive or mental problems, offering tele-assistance options and telecontrol of emotional biomarkers,’ they stress.
In this sense, the system could also be very useful for patients with pathologies that require continuous monitoring of the levels of some of the biomarkers that will be analysed in the project. ‘This comprehensive approach aims to improve the quality of life and emotional care of a wide range of users in a variety of clinical and social situations,’ the researchers add.
An accessible solution
There are currently some products on the market aimed at measuring the mood or stress state of their users. However, according to the researchers, these solutions are focused ‘mainly on the general population, and no specific studies have been carried out to measure biomarkers in people with communication difficulties’.
In addition, the aim is to develop a product that is cheaper than existing electronic devices, which only work on expensive and inaccessible platforms. ‘This fact does not allow foundations or people with limited resources to have access to them, and in case they are subsidised by the social security, the costs are too high. The company’s intention for the future is to develop a device that works on more accessible platforms and more affordable devices,’ say the researchers.
A prototype to complete the project
The aim of the consortium is to achieve a viable prototype at the end of the three-year project. To this end, UB researchers, who are part of the Discrete-2-Integrated Systems Laboratory (D2In) and Mixed Signad Research Group, will contribute their knowledge in electronics for the development of control and reading systems for the chemical sensors, as well as sending the resulting data to the computer platform.
The consortium coordinator, 3DThinks, a company with experience in developing technological solutions to help people with disabilities improve their quality of life, will be responsible for the development of the data platform and software. And finally, UPC researchers, through the CATMech research group on advanced technologies in mechanics, will be mainly responsible for the development of sensors and biomarker collection devices.
The three-year project, reference SCPP2300C010707XV0i, aims to develop a non-invasive disruptive technology for measuring stress and emotional state in people with communication difficulties (EmotionalSigns). For this reason, the University of Barcelona has been awarded the 2023 call for public-private collaboration projects funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the State Research Agency and the ERDF.