Smart Phone Based Stress Management and Intervention

Project goal: To create a smartphone application with a graphical user interface that communicates with an external heart-rate sensor. Stress negatively affects physical, mental and behavioral health. This heart-rate sensor can detect when a user is stressed and help lower their stress level via music therapy. The device designed employs an electrocardiogram sensor on the user’s chest to measure heart rate variability and transmit the data via Bluetooth to the application, which determines the user’s stress level. High heart-rate variability correlates to relaxation, while low variability indicates stress. If the application determines that the user is stressed, it will access an open-source third-party music application that will start playing music corresponding to the user’s musical interests to achieve quick and efficient stress management. The device quickly lowers stress and provides quantitative data that should further prove the effectiveness of music therapy for stress management.