Emotion estimation using physiological signals

Human thought is inherently emotional and emotions are an essential and productive aspect of human thought and action. Emotions though supposed to be erratic from the early days, are proved to be a mechanism that encompasses readiness to act, expectations, focus to goals, appraisal - of self and others and the resulting reactions. Cognition by itself means the perception, experience and expression of emotions. While experiencing the emotion, there are also physiological changes[1,7] taking place in the human body, like variations in the heart rate(ECG/HRV), skin conductance(GSR), breathing rate(BR), blood volume pulse(BVP),brain waves (EEG), temperature and muscle tension, and these are some of the metrics to sense emotive co-efficient. The subjects experiencing emotions in a higher magnitude differ from those who can regulate these emotional experiences and such a factor is named as Emotional Intelligence. This difference in experience is due a triad - value, expectation and reality; which forms an emotional self-structure. Though there is always an emotional experience in some magnitude, the expression may be evident or completely concealed or the subject is deceptive or tries to hide the emotion by not expressing. This paper looks at the ways in which the stimuli for triggering off the emotional state of the subject are identified, applied and hence perceived by the subject(s) and parameters like GSR and BVP or PR [23] and their variations discovered to conclude the emotional state of the subject. The subject also gives his feedback about the emotions he is undergoing and hence facilitates validation.