Can Technology Enhance Psychological Monitoring in Therapy Sessions?

[Katejk]

Hi everyone,

I am an undergrad student of psychology and I was curious is anyone from you would be interested to cooperate with me to discuss possibility about device which would help psychologists monitor data about patients. From what I know we can measure breath, pulse and even temperature of the body directly from the camera. I am curious if there is anything else what can help monitor directly a person during a session. There is any chance to construct blinking of the eye (how often) or where the eye is looking on device which will be put in front of a patient? I would be appreciated for any ideas on the topic above.

 

[berkeman]

Hi everyone,

I am an undergrad student of psychology and I was curious is anyone from you would be interested to cooperate with me to discuss possibility about device which would help psychologists monitor data about patients. From what I know we can measure breath, pulse and even temperature of the body directly from the camera. I am curious if there is anything else what can help monitor directly a person during a session. There is any chance to construct blinking of the eye (how often) or where the eye is looking on device which will be put in front of a patient? I would be appreciated for any ideas on the topic above.

Welcome to the PF.

There are a number of things you can monitor on a patient without getting too invasive. There are certainly eye movement monitoring software packages -- you should be able to find information on them with a Google search.

I'm not sure you can monitor pulse very easily without contact, though. There are ways to do it if the environment is quiet enough. Is the goal to be as unobtrusive as possible when interviewing a patient?

 

[Katejk]

Hi Berkeman,

Thank you for your respond on the topic. My goal is to have a tablet on a desk and to be able take some data directly from the screen about patient conditions. I think it is better not to attract any attention so the client can feel comfortable. I was curious if there is any electronic innovation to measure anything else beside temperature, eye movement, breath directly from the camera about a person or environment around? Thank you in advance.

 

[rootone]

... not to attract any attention ...

Then what is there to measure?

 

[Katejk]

It would be great to measure from the screen if someone is getting nervous it can be: tension of the muscles, even small changes on the face would help (if someone is smiling or disgusted), sweating (how often, how much) and all before-mentioned Obviously, it would be brilliant to have a device to take data about our brain which part is activated at this moment directly from camera. So far, I found this https://emotiv.com/support.php it is cheaper EEG which can be good to collect some data but I am not sure if it can be used during a session.

 

[tygerdawg]

Not an expert, but I'd look into facial-recognition vision systems and thermal imaging cameras. That is, if your budget supports this. Perhaps you could add some tactile-pad sensors to follow the subject's fidgeting about in the chair and on the floor while you skewer them with tough questions.

 

[Katejk]

Awesome ideas with this floor and chair, typerdawg - I will add this to my list. Thank You!

 

[berkeman]

You might look into voice stress analysis also. You could potentially have some stress indicators that could be discerned from just picking up their voice. You would need some way for the software to tell the difference between your voice and your patient's, though.

 

[Katejk]

Voice Stress! This is a thing! GREAT idea :D Wow! so many possibilities :D

 

[berkeman]

BTW, I would figure out a way to put a low frequency sensor in the chair that they are sitting in. That will let you "listen" to their heartbeat without them knowing that you are doing it.

On the voice stress analysis approach, I would probably use a hidden foot pedal for me to be able to distinguish between me speaking and them speaking.

Is this a theoretical exercise (writing a paper for your psyche class), or do you plan to do this in a clinical environment?

 

[Katejk]

So far I am doing research for myself with perspective to put it into my class and later in real world. I am just curious, what we can construct and how it can help in psychology or gerontology field? I am not familiar with electronic world, for that reason I thought it would be good idea to ask you guys who are masters in it. I need to buy few devices and check how it will work in real world and how I can apply them during a session. I will have them in few months. Then combine them all in one device (iPod or computer ) with software if this will be possible. Definitely it is huge work and a lot to do. I believe those kind of ideas really would help in psychology field but I need to do more research about it. I am really thankful for every help in this topic.

 

[rbelli1]

MIT has done some research in using changes in a video feed to detect pulse rate:
http://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/papers/vidmag.pdf

Maybe differential blood pressure changes could be sensed also? Certainly small flushing responses could be sensed.

BoB