Compact Stress Meter For Measuring Stress Levels At Work

A research group from the Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a prototype compact stress meter which uses a pulse-wave sensor, and put it into a computer mouse. This system measures blood flow in the fingertip with an infrared reflective probe, and analyzes the variation. It displays the stress level in real-time using a four-level scale. Stress levels can be measured easily, just by placing your fingertip on the sensor for 10 seconds.

At present, the sensor and the analysis program are separate, with the program running on a PC, but the group has already completed a prototype with the sensor built into a mouse. With this system, the sensor is naturally contacted by the thumb, so stress levels can be measured continually while the user is working at the computer.