Researchers at Microsoft’s Visualisation and Interaction Research Group are working on a new mood sensing ‘smart bra’, which is aimed to help prevent stress-related over-eating.
The new smart device features real-time system custom boards known as Generic Remote Access Sensing Platform (GRASP), in addition to a physical sensor board, corresponding firmware, software libraries, and an API.
Incorporating sensors that scan real-time bio-signals including heart rate and respiration, the ‘smart bra’ transmits the sensor stream data to a mobile phone app via Bluetooth, which would then be stored remotely into a Microsoft Azure Cloud.
The wearable technology is also embedded with an electrocardiogram and electro-dermal activities sensors in addition to a gyroscope and accelerometer.
Researchers carried out a women user study to make out if emotion detection via physiological sensing was possible in a mobile system and participants reported their emotions for about six hours per day over a four-day-period.
Microsoft senior research designer Asta Roseway said that participants wore the bra sensing system and reported their emotions for about 4-6 hours a day over a period of approximately four days.
"It was very tedious for participants to wear our prototyped sensing system, as the boards had to be recharged every 3-4 hours, which resulted in participants having to finagle with their wardrobe throughout the day," Roseway said.
Earlier, similar sensing underwear was developed for men that didn’t work as well, as the sensors were positioned too far away from the heart.
