RU2770291C2 - Method for taking signals for assessment of person's emotional reaction using headphones - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: medicine.SUBSTANCE: invention relates to medicine, namely to methods for taking signals for the assessment of a person’s emotional reaction using headphones. In this case, contact electrodes are used in the form of electrically conductive sections of a headphone case, for example, ear pads or surfaces of those parts of headphones that come into contact with the human ear. A contact of one electrode with the skin of one ear, and a contact of the other electrode with the skin of the other ear are provided. A horseshoe-shaped headphone case is fixed motionlessly on a person’s neck. An additional electrode is used in the form of an electrically conductive section of the horseshoe-shaped headphone case. A contact of the additional electrode with the human skin in the neck area is provided. Photoelectric sensors are placed on the inner surface of the horseshoe-shaped headphone case so that areas of the human skin located in their area of action have stable ambient light conditions. To measure the electrical activity of the skin, signals corresponding to a change in the potential difference between the skin of one ear and the skin of the person’s neck and between the skin of the other ear and the person’s neck are taken. To assess the activity of cardiac activity and respiration, signals from photoelectric sensors reflected from the body are taken by photoplethysmography.EFFECT: invention provides measurement of changes in the potential difference in two areas of the human skin and the intensity of optical signals reflected from human skin areas, while maintaining the portability and convenience of headphones for listening to audio and video materials, and possible harmful effects of pulsed microcurrents on the human head are eliminated.1 cl, 2 dwg, 1 tbl

Description

The invention relates to the field of medicine, namely to the field of psychophysiological research, for example, the analysis of psychophysiological reactions of a person, and can be used in neuromarketing, advertising, functional diagnostics, pedagogy, psychology, jurisprudence and forensics, computer games, pedagogy, psychology, and for medical purposes.

A method is known that expands the arsenal of tools for assessing human activity and functional states [1- Patent RU 2414845 Method for assessing human activity and functional state // Kostin A.N., Golikov Yu.Ya., Bedzyuk SV Publ. 03/27/2011 Bull. No. 9, IPC A61B 3/113, A61B 5/0452, A61B 5/053], according to which eye movements are recorded, intersaccade intervals (ISI) are measured. The duration of activation reactions of the galvanic skin reflex is also recorded and measured. Additionally, RR intervals of the electrocardiogram (SPI ECG) are determined.

The implementation of the method requires a sufficiently large number of measurements on professional medical equipment, comparison of a large amount of measurement data and can only be carried out in clinical conditions, which limits the scope of practical application of this method only to medicine.

A wider range of applications is achieved in the method [2 - Patent RU 2529482 Method for assessing the perception of information / Ognev AS, Glazkov AA, Venerina OG, Publ. 27.09.2014 Bull. No. 27, IPC A61B 5/16]. In accordance with the patent, the current normal background state of the physiological parameters of the subject is preliminarily removed using a polygraph. Then visual information is presented to the subject on a demonstration screen, eye movement is recorded to assess the subjective significance of visual information. With the help of a polygraph, synchronous measurements of the physiological parameters of the state of the body of the subject are made using contact sensors for blood pressure, photoplethysmogram, galvanic skin response, pneumatic sensors for upper and lower breathing, and tremor sensor sensors.

The disadvantage of this method is the complexity of the measurement and data analysis procedure, which cannot be applied simultaneously to a large group of subjects, and the effect of the subject's discomfort on the objectivity of the data obtained due to the use of several parameter recording devices.

The closest in technical essence (prototype) to the claimed invention is the method [3 - Patent RU No. 2565652, Method for removing analog signals to determine the functional state of the listener using headphones / Zhuravlev IV, Publ. 20.10.2015 Bull. No. 29, IPC A61B 5/053], which consists in the fact that at least two contact electrodes are used, made in the form of electrically conductive sections of the headphone case. The electrodes are placed in the external auditory canals, while the electrically conductive areas can be completely or partially ear cushions of the headphones or the surface of those parts of the headphones that are in contact with the human ear. The galvanic skin response of the skin on the listener's ears is measured based on the fact that at least one electrode is in contact with the skin of one ear and at least one electrode is in contact with the skin of the other ear.

The disadvantage of this method is that the functional state of the listener with the help of headphones is assessed only by measuring the galvanic skin response of the skin by means of two electrodes that are in contact with the human skin in the area of the left and right ear, respectively. Also, the method requires the measurement of conductivity, which leads to the need to pass pulsed microcurrents through the human head, which, with a certain regularity, may be unsafe for the health of the listener.

The technical problem to be solved by the proposed technical solution is to expand the functionality of the headphones when measuring a person's emotional response while maintaining their portability and convenience for listening to audio and video materials.

To solve this technical problem, a method is proposed for removing signals to assess a person's emotional reaction using headphones, in which at least two contact electrodes are used, made completely or partially in the form of electrically conductive sections of the headphone case, for example, ear pads or surfaces of those parts of the headphones that are in contact with the human ear, ensure contact of at least one electrode with the skin of one ear and at least one electrode with the skin of the other ear.

According to the invention, a horseshoe-shaped body of headphones is fixedly fixed on the neck of a person, an additional electrode is used, which is made in the form of an electrically conductive section of a horseshoe-shaped neck clamp of headphones, contact of the additional electrode with the human skin in the neck area is ensured, photoelectric sensors are placed on the inner surface of the horseshoe-shaped neck clamp of headphones in such a way that so that the areas of human skin located in the zone of their action have stable conditions of external illumination, to measure the electrical activity of the skin, signals are taken corresponding to a change in the potential difference between the skin of one ear and the skin of the neck of a person and between the skin of the other ear and the neck of a person, to assess the activity of the heart activity and respiration by the method of photoplethysmography, signals reflected from the body are taken from photoelectric sensors.

The technical result of the claimed invention is the measurement of changes in the potential difference in two areas of human skin and the intensity of optical signals reflected from areas of human skin while maintaining the portability and convenience of headphones for listening to audio and video materials. The results of measurements can be used when conducting research on the reaction of a group of people to listening materials.

Thus, the proposed method has the following distinguishing features and the sequence of its implementation from the prototype method, which are shown in table 1.

Table 1

Prototype method Suggested method 1. At least two contact electrodes are used, made entirely or partially in the form of electrically conductive sections of the headphone case, for example, ear pads or surfaces of those parts of the headphones that are in contact with the human ear. 1. At least two contact electrodes are used, made entirely or partially in the form of electrically conductive sections of the headphone case, for example, ear pads or surfaces of those parts of the headphones that are in contact with the human ear. 2. Ensure contact of at least one electrode with the skin of one ear and at least one electrode with the skin of the other ear. 2. Ensure contact of at least one electrode with the skin of one ear and at least one electrode with the skin of the other ear. 3. The galvanic skin response of the skin on the listener's ears is measured. 3. A horseshoe-shaped headphone case is fixedly fixed on a person’s neck. 4. An additional electrode is used, which is made in the form of an electrically conductive section of a horseshoe-shaped neck clip of the headphones. 5. Provide contact of the additional electrode with the human skin in the neck area 6. Photoelectric sensors are placed on the inner surface of the horseshoe-shaped neck fixator of the headphones in such a way that the human skin areas located in the zone of their action have stable external illumination conditions. 7. To measure the electrical activity of the skin, signals are taken corresponding to a change in the potential difference between the skin of one ear and the skin of the neck of a person and between the skin of the other ear and the neck of a person. 8. To assess the activity of cardiac activity and respiration by photoplethysmography, signals reflected from the body are taken from photoelectric sensors.

From the presented table 1 comparison of the implementation sequences of the prototype method and the proposed method shows that
The proposed method includes six operations:

- a horseshoe-shaped headphone case is fixedly fixed on a person's neck;

- use an additional electrode, which is made in the form of an electrically conductive section of the horseshoe-shaped neck clamp of the headphones;

− provide contact of the additional electrode with the human skin in the neck area;

- photoelectric sensors are placed on the inner surface of the horseshoe-shaped neck fixator of the headphones in such a way that the human skin areas located in the zone of their action have stable external illumination conditions;

- to measure the electrical activity of the skin, signals are taken corresponding to a change in the potential difference between the skin of one ear and the skin of the neck of a person and between the skin of the other ear and the neck of a person;

- to assess the activity of cardiac activity and respiration by photoplethysmography, signals reflected from the body are taken from photoelectric sensors.

The introduction of six operations allows, in comparison with the prototype method, to ensure the achievement of a technical result consisting in measuring the potential difference in two areas of the skin and the intensity of optical signals reflected from areas of human skin while maintaining the portability and convenience of headphones for listening to audio and video materials, and also the exclusion of the possible harmful effects of pulsed microcurrents on the human head.

The analysis of technical solutions made it possible to establish that analogues, characterized by a set of features that are identical to all the features of the proposed technical solution, are absent in the known
sources from the prior art, which indicates the compliance of the proposed method with the condition of patentability "novelty".

The results of the search for known solutions in this and related fields of technology in order to identify features that match the distinguishing features from the prototype showed that they do not follow explicitly from the prior art. From the prior art, the influence of the transformations envisaged by the essential features on the achievement of the specified technical result has not been revealed either. Therefore, the claimed technical solution meets the condition of patentability "inventive step".

The essence of the proposed method is revealed by figures 1 and 2.

In FIG. 1 shows a functional diagram of a device that implements the proposed method.

In FIG. 2 shows the possible appearance of the headphones, as well as the horseshoe-shaped neck clamp of the headphones and its possible placement on the human body.

When implementing the proposed method for picking up signals to assess a person’s emotional reaction using headphones, the following sequence of actions is performed:

- use at least two contact electrodes, made entirely or partially in the form of electrically conductive sections of the headphone case, for example, ear pads or surfaces of those parts of the headphones that are in contact with the human ear - 1;

- ensure contact of at least one electrode with the skin of one ear and at least one electrode with the skin of the other ear - 2;

- a horseshoe-shaped case of headphones is fixedly fixed on the neck of a person - 3;

- use an additional electrode, which is made in the form of an electrically conductive section of a horseshoe-shaped neck clamp of headphones - 4;

- provide contact of the additional electrode with the human skin in the neck area - 5;

- photoelectric sensors are placed on the inner surface of the horseshoe-shaped neck clamp of the headphones in such a way that the human skin areas located in the zone of their action have stable conditions of external illumination - 6;

- to measure the electrical activity of the skin, signals are taken that correspond to a change in the potential difference between the skin of one ear and the skin of a person's neck and between the skin of the other ear and the neck of a person - 7;

- to assess the activity of cardiac activity and respiration by the method of photoplethysmography, signals reflected from the body are taken from photoelectric sensors - 8.

The device designed to implement the proposed method (Fig. 1) includes: right and left headphones (HT) 1 with electrodes (E) 2, horseshoe-shaped body (PC) 3, additional electrode (DE) 4, power supply (IP) 5, key (K) 6, microgalvanometer (MkG) 7, photoelectric sensors (PD) 8, microcontroller (MK) 9.

Before using the headphones that implement the proposed method, the right and left GT 1 are fixed in such a way as to ensure reliable electrical contact E 2 with the human skin in the region of each human ear, the PC 3 is fixedly fixed in such a way as to ensure the contact of the DE 4 with the human body, while In this case, MKG 6 is connected using K 6 and through a pair of electrodes between one of the EPA 2 and DE 4 to parts of the human body to measure the electrical activity of the skin, PD 8 is placed on the inner surface of PC 3 in such a way as to ensure the operation of the photoplethysmograph according to the reflective scheme and stable illumination conditions of skin areas in the area of action of PD 8, and the output signals taken from MCG 7 and PD 8 are sent via wires or wireless communication lines to MC 9, which implements the specified algorithms for assessing a person's emotional reaction or transmits data to a remote computer for processing , IP 5 can be placed inside PC 3 and provides energy to all active devices, to which, in particular, include GIT 5 and PD 8.

Implementation of the invention.

For an objective assessment of a person's emotional response, it is necessary to measure the following indicators [4 - Anisimov V.N., Kolkova K.M., Psychophysiological methods in marketing: opportunities and limitations, International Research Journal No. 5 (47) Part 1, 2016, p. .18 -19]:

- activity of the cardiovascular system;

- activity of the respiratory system;

- electrical activity of the skin.

The activity of the human cardiovascular and respiratory systems can be assessed by the results of the analysis of the photoplethysmogram [5 − Aldonin G.M., Zheludko S.P. Systems and devices in cardiology. – Krasnoyarsk: Sib. Feder. University, 2014, 181s, p. 67]. The possibility of obtaining photoplethysmograms acceptable for practical use when placing sensors in the neck area is confirmed by relevant special studies [6 - Characterization Study of Neck Photoplethysmography - 40th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2018].

To assess the electrical activity of the skin, the time dependence of the potential difference in different areas of the skin is measured. Measurements on one part of the body are not always objective due to the individual characteristics of the subject's body. In this regard, they tend to use the largest possible volume of measurements. In the simplest case, when measuring the electrical activity of the skin according to the Tarkhanov method [7 − J. Hassett Introduction to psychophysiology, 1981, M. p. 53-55] you need not two, as in the prototype, but three electrodes.

All of the listed devices for picking up signals from the human body can be made compact, which allows you to combine all the necessary sensors with headphones, and data processing can be performed on a computer. The conversion of analog signals into digital form for subsequent digital processing can be performed using ADCs, which can be integrated into modern microvoltmeters and photodetectors of photoelectric sensors.

As follows from the prototype, the ear pads of the headphones may contain electrically conductive surfaces that can be used as two electrodes to measure the electrical activity of the skin.

The third electrode can be fixedly fixed on the neck of a person, if the earphones contain a horseshoe-shaped body, fixedly fixed on the neck of a person. A similar latch is known and used on some headphone models [8 − https://www.sony.ru/electronics/in-ear-headphones/wi-1000x]. A variant of its implementation is shown in Fig. 2.

In classical photoplethysmography, as a rule, near infrared radiation is used, which is least of all absorbed by biological tissues and blood [5, p. 66]. The optical scheme that can be used in the implementation of the proposed method corresponds to reflective photoplethysmography. The measurement circuit contains a photodiode, a focusing lens, a converging lens, and a photodetector. The quality of measurements is determined by the stability of external conditions, which include the immobility of the sensor and the constancy of illumination of the area of human skin on which measurements are taken. For reliable and fixed mounting of the photo sensor, a horseshoe-shaped headphone case can also be used, which is fixed on a person's neck. The convenience of such a fixator in this case is confirmed by the fact that the neck area contains a large number of blood vessels. In addition, photoelectric sensors can use other wavelengths (usually the red or green part of the visible radiation) [5, 7, 9 - How to Design Peripheral Oxygen Saturation (SpO2) and Optical Heart Rate Monitoring (OHRM) Systems, Application Report SLAA655 March 2015].

A digital device can be used as a microcontroller to transfer measurement results to a digital processing device, including a smartphone or desktop computer. These devices are known and widely used.

To ensure the transfer of results to the final processing device (smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer), a standard processor chip with integrated wireless (for example, according to the Bluetooth Low Energy series standard) and / or wired (for example, according to the Bluetooth Low Energy series standard) can be used as a microcontroller. USB) interfaces.

Thus, the implementation of the device does not cause difficulties, sensors for measuring the pulse rate and pressure are widely used in medical and household portable devices, such as fitness bracelets, and sensors for measuring the electrical activity of the skin are widely used in medical devices for measuring electrocardiograms, electroencephalograms.

The foregoing allows us to conclude that the proposed method meets the criterion of "industrial applicability" for the invention.

Claims (1)

A method for picking up signals for assessing a person's emotional response using headphones, which consists in using at least two contact electrodes made entirely or partially in the form of electrically conductive sections of the headphone case, for example, ear cushions or surfaces of those parts of the headphones that are in contact with the human ear, provide contact of at least one electrode with the skin of one ear and at least one electrode with the skin of the other ear, characterized in that a horseshoe-shaped headphone housing is fixedly fixed on the person’s neck, an additional electrode is used, which is made in the form of an electrically conductive section of the horseshoe-shaped headphone housing, provides contact of an additional electrode with human skin in the neck area, photoelectric sensors are placed on the inner surface of the horseshoe-shaped body of the headphones in such a way that the human skin areas located in the zone of their action have stable ambient light conditions, to measure the electrical signals corresponding to a change in the potential difference between the skin of one ear and the skin of the neck of a person and between the skin of the other ear and the neck of a person are removed, to assess the activity of cardiac activity and respiration by photoplethysmography, signals reflected from the body are taken from photoelectric sensors.

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