Review of 10 sensors and 2 software platforms used in our anxiety detection research — eye tracking, heart rate, skin conductance, video, and motion capture. Includes specs, comparisons, and sample data.
 Pupil Labs Core Head-mounted eye tracker Dark pupil + 3D model · 5-point calibration 1080p @30 Hz · 720p @60 Hz · 480p @120 Hz |
 Tobii Pro Glasses 3 Wearable eye tracker 100 Hz gaze sampling |
 SMI Eye Tracking Systems Research-grade eye tracker 60 Hz sampling |
 Polar H10+ Chest strap — HR, HRV, IBI 64 MHz microprocessor · ECG sensor |
 Moofit HW401 Wearable heart rate monitor 64 MHz microprocessor · ECG sensor |
 Empatica E4 Wristband Wrist wearable — EDA, BVP, temp, accel Multi-sensor (EDA + BVP + temp + accel) |
 TEA CAPTIV T-SENS GSR Skin conductance (wireless) 32 Hz sampling · 20 g · 8 hr battery |
 BioPac EDA Sensors Electrodermal activity measurement |
 AXIS P1275 Camera Network surveillance camera HDTV 1080p · WDR-Forensic capture |
 AXIS P1245 Camera Compact network camera HDTV 1080p |
 OptiTrack (Slim X13) Motion capture system |
 OpenFace Open-source facial analysis Landmark detection · Head pose · Action unit recognition · Gaze estimation |
 Noldus FaceReader Commercial facial analysis 468-point face model · 20 Action Units · 99% accuracy on ADFES |
From Experiment Scenario.pdf — a 5-phase, 30-minute session:
| Phase | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Interview | 10 min | Semi-structured demographic interview, informed consent |
| 2. Sensor Setup | 5 min | Fit Pupil Labs Core, Polar H10+, and Moofit HW401; calibrate |
| 3. Baseline | — | Reading task to get resting-state measurements |
| 4. Psychometric Testing | 15 min | HADS, STAI, BFI-10, and FQ on screen while sensors record |
| 5. Debrief | — | Participant feedback; mental health resources provided if needed |
From Threshold.pdf — literature-based thresholds used for detecting anxiety:
| Sensor | Measure | Anxiety Threshold | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupil Labs Core | Fixation duration | < 250 ms | Laeng et al. (2012) |
| Pupil Labs Core | Saccade peak velocity | > 500 deg/s (for ≥ 15° saccades) | Di Stasi et al. (2013); van der Lans et al. (2013) |
| OpenFace | Brow furrowing (AU 4) | ≥ 3.0 on 0–5 intensity scale (FACS C) | Ekman & Friesen (1978); Gavrilescu & Vizireanu (2019) |
| OpenFace | Lip tightening (AU 24) | ≥ 3.0 on 0–5 intensity scale (FACS C) | Ekman & Friesen (1978); Gavrilescu & Vizireanu (2019) |
| TEA GSR | Skin conductance response | > 0.05 µS | Boucsein (1992) |
| Polar H10+ / Moofit | RMSSD | < 50 ms | ESC/NASPE Task Force (1996) |
| Polar H10+ / Moofit | SDNN | < 50 ms | ESC/NASPE Task Force (1996) |
| Document | What's in it |
|---|---|
List of Sensors.pdf |
Specs and capabilities for each sensor |
Sensor Comparison.pdf |
Side-by-side comparison |
Sensors (Eye-tracking, HRV, GSR, Camera).pdf |
Overview by measurement type |
OpenFace vs Noldus.pdf |
Facial analysis software comparison |
Experiment Scenario.pdf |
Experimental protocol |
Threshold.pdf |
Anxiety detection thresholds with references |
The Sensor's data/ folder has CSVs from psychometric testing sessions (2024-06-13 to 2024-06-24). Full column definitions are in the data dictionary.
| File | Rows | Description |
|---|---|---|
HRV.csv |
265 | Per-question biometric summary — pupil dilation & blink rates aggregated per question across all 3 sessions. Note: despite the filename, this file contains eye tracking metrics, not raw HRV data. See DATA_DICTIONARY.md for column details. |
hr.csv |
4033 | Heart rate from multiple sensors (Polar H10+, Moofit) with confidence scores |
ibi.csv |
2395 | Inter-beat interval series |
Psychometric_Test_Results.csv |
88 | Question-level responses (HADS, STAI-S, STAI-T, FQ, BFI) with timestamps |
sed.csv |
34172 | Raw eye tracking — head position, gaze direction, pupil size, eye openness |
sed_fix.csv |
34172 | Processed eye tracking — adds gaze difference, fixation detection, fixation duration |
See analysis/explore_data.ipynb for a walkthrough that loads each CSV and plots heart rate, pupil dilation, fixation durations, and HRV metrics from the sample session.
- Picking sensors for a multimodal physiology study
- Comparing what each device can actually do
- Designing experiments with multiple concurrent sensors
- Understanding the data formats each platform outputs
- Multimodal-Multisensor — Longitudinal study using these sensors
- Multimodal — Analysis of the collected data
- CalmSense — Stress detection system built on multimodal signals
Pupil Labs Core · Polar H10+ · Moofit HW401 · TEA CAPTIV T-SENS · Empatica E4 · OpenFace · Noldus FaceReader · OptiTrack · AXIS Cameras
Biometric Sensors · Eye Tracking · Heart Rate Variability · Galvanic Skin Response · Electrodermal Activity · Anxiety Detection · Psychometric Testing · Multimodal Sensing · OpenFace · Pupil Labs