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Measuring skin conductance over clothes

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Abstract

We propose a new method that measures skin conductance over clothes to nonintrusively monitor the changes in physiological conditions affecting skin conductance during daily activities. We selected the thigh-to-thigh current path and used an indirectly coupled 5-kHz AC current for the measurement. While varying the skin conductance by the Valsalva maneuver method, the results were compared with the traditional galvanic skin response (GSR) measured directly from the fingers. Skin conductance measured using a 5-kHz current displayed a highly negative correlation with the traditional GSR and the current measured over clothes reflected the rate of change of the conductance of the skin beneath.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by the Public Welfare & Safety research program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (No. 2010-0020807) and in part by Seoul R&BD Program (JP090968M0209721).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Program, Medical and Biological Engineering Major, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

    Ki Hwan Hong & Seung Min Lee

  2. Department of Oriental Biomedical Engineering, Sangji University, Wonju, Korea

    Yong Gyu Lim

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

    Kwang Suk Park

Authors
  1. Ki Hwan Hong
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  2. Seung Min Lee
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  3. Yong Gyu Lim
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  4. Kwang Suk Park
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kwang Suk Park.

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Hong, K.H., Lee, S.M., Lim, Y.G. et al. Measuring skin conductance over clothes. Med Biol Eng Comput 50, 1155–1161 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-012-0926-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-012-0926-4

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