Towards measuring well-being in smart environments

Abstract

This study discusses measurement of well-being in the context of smart environments. We propose an experimental design which induces variation in an individual’s flow, stress, and affect for testing different measurement methods. Both qualitative and quantitative measuring methods are applied, with a variety of wearable sensors (EEG sensor, smart ring, heart rate monitor) and video monitoring. Preliminary results show significant agreement with the test structure in the readings of wearable stress and heart rate sensors. Self-assessments, on the contrary, fail to show significant evidence of the experiment structure, reflecting the difficulty of subjective estimation of short-term stress, flow and affect.