Skin response measurements

The objective of this study is to investigate the possibility to detect mental and light physical stress through the measurement of skin reflectance in the mm-wave/sub-THz band. Two frequency bands have been considered, 75-110 GHz (Band-I) and 325-500 GHz (Band-II), while the measurements have been performed in the three different locations, the arm, the dorsal side of the hand and the fingertip.

Each transmitter and receiver set is equipped with a matched standard horn antenna operated at the selected frequency band.

The transmitter and receiver used during the test are active mixers. To operate each active module a local oscillator (LO) is required. The PXA and the Agilent generators are used as LO for transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) accordingly (Fig. 2). The output signal from the receiver (RX) is gathered by a spectrum analyzer and then post-processed. The entire lab bench is connected through GPIB and both LO generators are synchronized (10MHz).

The measured reflected signal amplitude is recorded and post-process on a personal computer.

The dataset refers to Laboratory test. The skin reflectance was measured during rest and after mental and physical stress. Physical stress was provoked using a dynamometer under 15 N of force for 5 minutes. Provocation of mental stress was achieved with the use of the Stroop Test [11] for 15 minutes. A stress measurement was always preceded by a resting period of at least 15 minutes. Three hand locations have been considered, (a) arm, (b) hand and (c) finger.

The datasets are related to the open accessible publication "Human Physical Condition RF Sensing at THz range".