Overview of the Methods and Applications of Electrodermal Activity Assessment and Its Relation with Electrotactile Feedback and Potential Use in Automated Calibration

This paper presents an overview of the Electrodermal Activity (EDA) applications and methods for signal analysis, as it is a tool that has a wide range of potential uses in monitoring of user's wellbeing. Significant correlations have been shown between EDA and stress, both when induced through external stimulation (auditory, visual, pain, etc.), cognitive load or physiological strain (heat, dehydration, intense physical activity). Also, along with the heartrate it is one of the least intrusive parameters to be measured and requires relatively simple signal processing. All of this makes it a highly promising tool in a number of applications. However, naturally occurring variability between subjects and between different measurement sessions of the same subjects require significant effort in the experimental setup, as well as meticulous calibration procedures, in order to obtain reliable results. This largely limits the use of EDA to highly controlled laboratory or clinical conditions, significantly limiting its real-world impact. There is an observed connection between the EDA responses and electrotactile stimulation which can be highly controlled. This may potentially be used in an automated calibration procedure that can be rapidly performed before each monitoring session and would not require any expertise of the end user. Here we introduce this hypothesis to lay the foundation for the future experimental work.