Reliability of Wrist-Worn Sensors for Measuring Physiological Responses in Soundscape Assessments

Physiological responses such as hear rate variation and electrodermal activity are indicators of the body's response to external stimuli. Currently, physiological measurements tend to confine studies to controlled lab environments due to high sensitivity and the bulkiness of the equipment. Although medical grade wrist-worn devices have been developed and validated to have similar accuracy as their bulkier counterparts, their reliability with regards to vigorous motions and in highly humid environments has yet to be investigated. Here, an off-the-shelf medical grade wrist-worn physiological measurement device, the Empatica E4 Wristband REV.2, is investigated in terms of its signal acquisition robustness under vigorous arm movements in a controlled setting. The same experiments are repeated in hot and humid outdoor environments. The battery of tests is designed to mimic the movements associated with regular soundscape soundwalk assessments in a controlled setting, and subsequently in a realistic weather condition in a controlled manner.