IoMT-Enabled Stress Monitoring in a Virtual Reality Environment and at Home

Objective: Modern lifestyles are triggering stress at a disproportionate rate for longer periods of time. Chronic or long-lasting stress can pose a risk to our health. Despite advances in physiological recording methods, mental stress remains challenging to quantify and monitor. Methods: We describe an Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) device with electrocardiogram (ECG) recording features. The recorded ECG signal is processed on-the-fly to calculate, in real time, heart rate (HR), HR variability, energy expenditure, and mental stress. Data are sent to an online platform using a standard Internet of Things (IoT) publish-subscribe messaging transport protocol for continuous monitoring. Results: The system functionality is first validated by performing hardware-in-the-loop measurements connected to a patient simulator. We, then, monitored induced stress by recording ECG in subjects using liquid metal electrodes performing a plank walking task in a virtual reality (VR) environment with high heights exposure. The results demonstrate our IoMT system’s ability to provide accurate ECG metrics using novel liquid metal electrodes by detecting continuously increased stress values in a VR setting and at home. Conclusion: The IoMT measurement device presented provides a novel strategy for monitoring stress in real time. Significance: Our work provides the opportunity for future research on psychological stress and emotion regulation within daily life and the physiological mechanisms through which it influences the health of both children and adults.