Contents

1. PROBLEM STATEMENT ................................................................................................................. 2 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................... 3 3. PROJECT OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................... 8 3.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 8 3.2 OBJECTIVE ............................................................................................................................... 11 4. IMPLEMENTATION ....................................................................................................................... 12 4.1 METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................................... 12 4.1.1 DATA ACQUISITION: ....................................................................................................... 12 4.1.2 PRE-PROCESSING: ........................................................................................................... 13 4.1.3 FEATURE EXTRACTION: ................................................................................................ 14 4.1.4 CLASSIFICATION: ............................................................................................................ 15 4.2 PROPOSED FLOW .................................................................................................................... 16 4.3 PERT CHART ............................................................................................................................ 17 5. REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................. 18

1. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Stress describes bodily reactions to a range of observed threats, both physical and psychological. Mental stress is accompanied by dynamic changes in autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity. It changes the physiological balance of ANS. Many investigations have been carried out showing the resemblance of the relationship between the stress and physiological signals including electrocardiogram (ECG), heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure (BP), pupil diameter, etc. As the physiological signals are basically stochastic in nature, we need a technique which will minimize the computation time as well as complexity of the system and will produce nearest precise values for further studies. So we are developing an approach using soft computing techniques for detecting mental stress.

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Assessment of mental stress under different workload conditions is a current issue in many engineering and medical fields. Although stress cannot be detected directly, but with the help of physiological signals it becomes interpretable. The autonomic nervous system serves as a control mechanism to maintain the body under stable conditions. On the basis of functional differences, the ANS is mainly divided into three separate systems, the sympathetic, parasympathetic and enteric nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) helps preparing the body for action in response to potential threats; whereas parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) helps in bringing the body back towards the rest state. Several physiological parameters like electrocardiogram (ECG), heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure, etc have been studied and found sensitive towards the fluctuations occurring during mental stress. ECG

Electrocardiography is an important tool in diagnosing the condition of the heart. It is the record of variation of bioelectric potential with respect to time. It is measured by placing electrodes on the body surface; a 12-lead electrocardiograph is used to record the electrical activity.

A typical ECG signal consists of the P-wave, QRS complex, and T-wave. Arrhythmias (an abnormality in hearts beat rate due to various reasons), are not imminently life-threatening but may require therapy to prevent further problems. Diagnostic methods have been applied to detection in conjunction with time domain, frequency domain, and time-frequency domain techniques. Cardiac arrhythmias divide into two groups: o The first group is life threatening and requires immediate therapy with an automatic external defibrillator. o The second group is not life threatening, but requires sustainability therapy.

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HRV HRV refers to the beat to beat alternations in heart rates.

Spectral analysis of HRV based on fast Fourier transform shows three major spectral regions: very low frequency (VLF), low frequency (LF), and high frequency (HF). Since the HF indicates the activity of PNS division and LF indicates the SNS. Hence, the LF/HF ratio reflects the balance of SNS and PNS divisions. Mental stress decreases high frequency components, but increases low frequency components of heart beat interval signals. The normal cardio vascular response to mental stress involves an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and cardiac contraction. These variations of the heart beat are affected by the thoughts, emotions and physical activities. During Mental stress SNS increases activity and PNS decreases. This leads to an increased stress on the heart and affects the immunological system. Blood pressure It is the amount of force (pressure) that blood exerts on the walls of the blood vessels as it passes through them. Two pressures are measured for the reading: o Systolic pressure: when heart is beating o Diastolic pressure: when heart is relaxed. To measure blood pressure, usually we use a device called a Sphygmomanometer. The measuring unit used is millimetres (mm) of mercury.

EEG It represents the electrical activity of the brain. Cortical potentials are generated due to excitatory and inhibitory post-synaptic potentials.

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Signals can be recorded at the scalp using surface electrodes. In clinical practice, several channels of the EEG are recorded simultaneously from various locations on the scalp for comparative analysis of activities in different regions of the brain. The inter-electrode distances are equal along anterior-posterior and electrode positioning is symmetrical.

Typical EEG instrumentation settings used are low pass filtering at 75 Hz, and paper recording at 100 V/cm and 30 mm/s for 10 -20 min over 8-16 simultaneous channels. Special EEG techniques include the use of needle electrodes, naso-pharyngeal electrodes, recording the electrocorticogram (ECoG) from an exposed part of the cortex, and the use of intracerebral electrodes. EEG signals may be used to study the nervous system, monitoring of sleep stages, biofeedback and control, and diagnosis of diseases such as epilepsy. The commonly used terms for EEG frequency bands are: Delta (), theta (), alpha (), beta ().

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The limitations of measuring stress, bounds with the three factors, viz. difficulty in collecting physiological data from real time stressful environment; variations in between the subjects on stress; and difficulty in estimating the level of stress. Conventional power spectrum density estimation methods are based on FFT. But these are not suitable for analysing heartbeat signals whose frequency components change rapidly For frequency based features, frequency spectrum of individual QRS complex is found in the range of 0 - 20Hz. The spectrum has maximum amplitude at 4Hz, in ventricular tachycardia, and its amplitude decreases as frequency increases. The frequencies of the ventricular fibrillation are concentrated between 4 7 Hz. These techniques are robust but are not capable of recognition. Artificial intelligent approaches have been proposed to improve the classification of cardiac abnormalities including wavelet neural networks, artificial neural networks and fuzzy hybrid neural networks. In general physiological signals are severely contaminated during the data acquisition with different type of noises and other interferences. Digital filters have been mostly used by several researchers to remove basic sources of noise. Discrete wavelet transform is widely used for Statistical feature extraction in ECG signals based stress assessment. The wavelet transform is designed to address the problem of non-stationary signals. It involves representing a time function in terms of simple, fixed building blocks, termed wavelets. The main advantage is that it has a varying window size, being broad at low frequencies and narrow at high frequencies, thus leading to an optimal time frequency resolution in all frequency ranges. Frequency domain analysis applies high frequency and low frequency ranges to discriminate ventricular rhythm, atrial rhythm, parasympathetic and sympathetic activity signals. Fourier analysis is a method of data analysis. It breaks up a signal into sinusoidal waves of various frequencies. FA performs the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) on the signals. Because biomedical applications often involve the acquisition of continuous time signals by digital sampling, one has the choice of filtering either before sampling, using a continuous time filter (analog filter), or after sampling using a discrete time filter (digital filter).

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Digital filters are more versatile and more convenient to modify for different applications. These are designed using z-transforms. Analog filters, however, also have certain advantages and relevant reasons to employ them: a. To prevent aliasing one always should filter a continuous time signal with an analog filter before sampling it. b. Even if it is incomplete any noise removal that one can effect with an analog filter, before sampling reduces the requirements on any subsequent filter. c. These filters provide a foundation for designing equivalent digital filters. By combining advanced machine learning techniques, and multi-sensory platforms to detect persons stress, it will be possible to detect the intensity of the stress up to an extent and would also help in enriching the quality of life.

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3. PROJECT OVERVIEW 3.1 INTRODUCTION

When stress is given acutely, SNS gets activated to increase the heartbeat rates, the perspiring activity of the adrenaline glands and the breathing rates. When stress is stopped, PNS takes over to decrease the heartbeat and the breathing rates. But how to get through all these results so as to analyse them and to come to a conclusion is a real task. So we need a detailed study of all these conditions. Event detection: Biomedical signals carry signatures of physiological events. The part of the signal related to a specific event of interest is referred as an epoch. The P, QRS, and T waves in ECG: a. The P wave: Contraction of the atria is triggered by the SA node impulse. The P wave is a slow waveform, with duration of about 80 milliseconds. The P wave amplitude is much slower (about 0.1-0.2 mV) than QRS complex wave because the atria are smaller than the ventricles. The P wave is the epoch related to the event of atrial contraction. b. The PQ segment: The AV node provides a delay to facilitate completion of atrial contraction and transfer of blood to the ventricles before ventricular contraction is initiated. The resulting PQ segment, of about 80 ms, is important in recognising the baseline. c. The QRS wave: Stimulate contraction of ventricular muscles in a rapid sequence from the apex upwards. The almost simultaneous contraction of the entire ventricular musculature results in a sharp and tall QRS complex of about 1 mV amplitude and 80-100 ms duration. The event of ventricular contraction is represented by the QRS epoch. d. The ST segment: The normally flat ST segment is related to the plateau in the action potential of the left ventricular muscle cells. The duration of the plateau in the action potential is about 200 ms; the ST segment duration is usually about 100-120 ms. e. The T wave: It appears in a normal ECG signal as discrete wave separated from the QRS by an iso-electric ST segment. However, it relates to the last phase of the action potential of ventricular muscle cells, when the potential returns from the plateau of the depolarised state to the resting potential through the process of
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repolarisation. The T wave is commonly referred to as the wave corresponding to ventricular relaxation. The T wave is elusive, being low in amplitude (0.1-0.3 mV) and being a slow wave extending over 120-160 ms. It is almost absent in many ECG recordings.

The first and second heart sounds: The normal cardiac cycle manifests as series of the first and second heart soundsS1 and S2 resp. Murmurs and additional sounds may appear in the presence of cardiovascular diseases or defects. f. The first heart sound (S1): reflects a sequence of events related to ventricular contraction- closure of the atrio-ventricular valves. Iso-volumic contraction, opening of the semilunar valves, and rejection of the blood from the ventricles. The epoch of S1 is directly related to the ventricular contraction. g. The second heart sound (S2): related to the end of ventricular contraction, signified by closure by the aortic and pulmonary valves. h. Murmurs: the systolic murmur of aortic stenosis relates to the event of turbulent ejection of blood from the left ventricle through a restricted aortic valve opening. The diastolic murmur in the case of aortic insufficiency correspondence to the event of regurgitation of blood from the aorta back into the left ventricle through a leaky aortic valve. EEG rhythms, waves, and transients: Typical manifestations of the activities: o K- complex: this is a transient complex waveform with slow waves, sometimes associated with sharp components, and often followed by 14 Hz waves. It occurs spontaneously or in response to a sudden stimulus during sleep, with amplitude of about 200V.
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o Lambda waves: these are monophasic, positive, sharp waves that occur in the occipital location with amplitude of less than 50V. they are related to the eye movements, and are associated with visual exploration. o Mu rhythm: appears as a group of waves in the frequency range of 7-11 Hz with an arcade or comb shaped in the central location. The mu rhythm usually has amplitude of less than 50V, and is blocked or attenuated by contralateral movement. o Spike: transient with a pointed peak, having a duration in the range of 20-30 ms. o Sharp wave: it is also a transient wave with a pointed peak, but with a longer duration. The range is of 70-200 ms. o Spike-and-wave rhythm: a sequence of surface-negative slow waves in the frequency range of 2.5- 3.5 Hz and having a spike associated with each wave is referred to as a Spike-and-wave rhythm. There could be several spikes of amplitude up to 1000V in each complex. o Sleep spindle: this is an episodic rhythm at about 14 Hz and 50V, occurring maximally over the fronto-central regions during certain stages of sleep. o Vertex sharp transient or V- wave: is a sharp potential i.e. maximal at the vertex at about 300V and is negative in relation to the EEG in the other areas. It occurs spontaneously during sleep or in response to a sensory stimulus during sleep or wakefulness.

Filtering for removal of artifacts:

Any signal other than that of interest could be termed as interference, artifact or simply noise. Sources may be - physiological, instrumentation used, and environment of experiment. Problem caused by artifacts in biomedical signals are: sophisticated signal processing, algorithms degrade their performance the most. Due to weak levels of most biomedical signals at their source, high amplification factors of several hundred to several thousand may be required. But due to it, electronic noise in instrumentation amplifier also gets amplified along with signal. Low noise power supplies and modern electronic amplifier with high input impedance, high CMRR and high PSRR are desirable for the acquisition of biomedical signals. Experiments dealing with very weak signals such as ERPs and EEGs may require a wire mesh shielded cage to contain the subject and the instruments. The ECG is a relatively strong signal with a readily identifiable waveform. Most types of interference that affect ECG may be removed by band pass filters. When values of a random process form a time series or a function of time we have a random signal. The statistical measures have physical meanings: the mean represent the DC component, the MS value represents average power, and the RMS value gives average noise magnitude or level. These measures are useful in calculating SNR.
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3.2 OBJECTIVE
To study the stress levels in human beings we are proposing and implementing these methods. It also helps to find out the reasons or say causes behind it along with its effect on various physiological signals. By learning and understanding the fluctuations observed in physiological signals due to stress we will be able to classify the condition of a person as relaxed or under stress and take some precautionary steps to improve the mental health of that person.

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4. IMPLEMENTATION
4.1 METHODOLOGY

4.1.1 DATA ACQUISITION:

ECG waveform analysis: The steps required may be expressed as: a. Detection of ECG waves: primarily the QRS complex, and possibly the P wave and T waves. b. Delimitation of wave boundaries, including the P, QRS and T waves. c. Measurement of inter-wave intervals, such as RR, PQ, ST, QQ and PP

intervals.
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There are four measures proposed to characterize QRS complexes, defined as follows: a. Duration: width of the complex b. Height: the maximum amplitude minus the minimum amplitude of the complex c. Offset: the positive or negative vertical distance from the midpoint of the baseline to the center of the QRS complex. d. Area: area under the QRS waveform rectified with respect to a straight line through the midpoint of the base-line.

4.1.2 PRE-PROCESSING:

ECG analysis concerns: o Resting ECG interpretation, stress testing, ambulatory monitoring, or intensive care monitoring, which forms a basic set of algorithms o Cardiovascular diseases and abnormalities alter the ECG wave shape Acquired signals are usually contaminated with noises. The filtering method depends on the type of noises in signal. Various types of interferences in biomedical signals of different origin:

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a. High frequency noise in ECG: due to instrumentation amplifier, recording system and EM signals by the cables b. Motion artifact in ECG: may be caused in chest lead ECG signals, by coughing and breathing with large movement of chest. Poor contact and polarization of electrodes may also cause low frequency artifacts. c. Power line interference in ECG signals: due to distortion harmonics of fundamental frequency could appear it may be difficult to visualise. Most types of interference may be removed by band pass filters. Active high-pass filter removes the baseline fluctuations, but other noises still remain present.

Filters:
a. Time domain filters: spectral characterisation of signal and noise may not be required b. Frequency domain filters: maybe designed to provide specific low pass, high pass, band pass or band reject filters. The most common designs are - the Butterworth, Chebyshev, elliptic, and Bessel filters, like: a. Removal of high frequency noise Butterworth low pass filters b. Removal of low frequency noise Butterworth high pass filters c. Removal of periodic artifacts Notch and comb filters c. Optimal filtering (the wiener filter): filter parameters are optimized with reference to performance criteria. Best achievable results under the conditions imposed and information provided is guaranteed. No cut-off frequency is required to be specified as in case of Butterworth filters. The 50Hz notch filter obtains a better SNR. d. Adaptive filters: LMS adaptive filter, filters the signal, but its convergence and performance cause distortions and even poor performance.

4.1.3 FEATURE EXTRACTION:

Preprocessed ECG signal is highly nonlinear. Several algorithms have been developed for analyzing and classifying the ECG signal. The classifying method under evaluation includes:

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Digital signal analysis, Fuzzy Logic methods, Artificial Neural Network, HMM, Genetic Algorithm, SVMs, SOMs, etc with each approach exhibiting its own advantages and disadvantages.

4.1.4 CLASSIFICATION:
Various classifiers used for such applications: KNN, SVM, Fuzzy SVM, SVM genetic algorithm, etc. The K-nearest neighbour algorithm (KNN) performs classification based on closest training points on the feature space. It is the simplest machine learning algorithm compared to other algorithms like support vector machine (SVM), decision tree classifier, etc. Euclidian distance is used as distance measure for KNN classifier with different K values. The SVM classifier exhibits a promising generalization capability, thanks to the maximal margin principle it is based upon. It is also less sensitive to the curse of dimensionality. The fuzzy SVM classifier is used to classify the features into different categories and differentiate the stress state from the relax state. It generates better classification results than the pair-wise classification with SVM method. Again, the classification accuracy of SVMGA, at least in case of ECG beat classification is superior to those of SVM classifiers, whose parameters were randomly selected. This approach is proposed for an automatic ECG beat classification.

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4.2 PROPOSED FLOW

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4.3 PERT CHART

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5. REFERENCES
[1] Seema Nayak, Dr. M. K. Soni and Dr. Dipali Bansal, Filtering Techniques For ECG Signal Processing, International Journal of Research in Engineering & Applied Sciences, vol. 2, Issue 2, pp. 671-679, February 2012 [2] Van Huan Nguyen, Thi Hai Binh Nguyen, Hakil Kim, Reliable detection of eye features and eyes in color facial images using ternary eye-verifier, Science direct transaction, Pattern Recognition 45 (2012), pp. 3853-3865. [3] F. Mokhayeri, M.R. Akbarzadeh and T.S. Toosizadeh, Mental stress detection using physiological signals based on soft computing techniques, 18th Iranian conference on Biomedical Engineering, pp. 232-237, IEEE 2011. [4] P. Karthikeyan, M. Murugappan and S. Yaacob, ECG signals based mental stress assessment using wavelet transform, International conference on control system, computing and engineering, pp. 258-262, IEEE 2011. [5] Kil-sang Yoo and Won-hyung Lee, Mental stress assessment based on pulse photoplethysmography, 15th International Symposium on Consumer electronics, pp. 323-326, IEEE 2011. [6] P. Karthikeyan, M. Murugappan and S. Yaacob, A review on stress inducement stimuli for assessing human stress using physiological signals, 7th international colloquium on signal processing and its applications, pp. 420-425, IEEE 2011. [7] Eduardo Gil, Michele Orini, Raquel Bailon, Jose Maria Vergara and Pablo laguna, Comparitive analysis between PPG variability and HRV during non-stationary tilt table test, Proceedings of the 6th ESGCO, Berlin, pp. 01-04, 2010 [8] S.Karpagachelvi, Dr.M.Arthanari, and M.Sivakumar, ECG Feature Extraction Techniques - A Survey Approach, International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 76-80, April 2010 [9] Elif Derya Ubeyli, Statics over ECG signals, Expert systems with applications, vol. 36, pp. 8758-8767, 2009. [10] J.Zhai and A. Barreto, Stress detection in computer users based on digital signal processing of noninvasive physiological variables, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2006, pp. 13551358. Rangaraj M. Rangayyan, Biomedical signal analysis- A case study approach, IEEE Press Series on Biomedical Engineering. Eugene N. Bruce, Biomedical Signal Processing and Signal Modeling, A Wiley International Publication S. N. Sivanandam, S. N Deepa, Introduction to Neural Networks using Matlab 6.0, Tata McGrawHill Education, 2006

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