Wearable tech enhances potential for friends-based mental health support
15 Apr 2023
Wearable tech that shares data between small circles of close friends and relations could provide a new approach to distributed, mutual health care, suggests new research.
Teams of computing scientists from Scotland and China set out to examine the potential for the ‘caring-through-data’ approach.
Based on previous research where data regarding blood glucose and fertility levels produced positive results, they created an app to display stress related data. The object was to examine whether sharing information could provide better information on loved ones’ mood change and prompt others to tailor their support appropriately.
Dubbed ‘IntimaSea’, the smartphone app was able to extract heart rate data from subjects’ smart watches and present this in graphical terms.
The interface consists of waves on a shore with participants represented by different marine animal avatars. A fall in heart rate variability suggesting heightened stress levels causes the avatar to sink lower.
A click allows a participant to share their data with their friendship group who can respond via text, emoji or phone call.
Computing scientists from Scotland and China are behind the finding, which is set to be presented at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Germany later this month.
Dr Xianghua (Sharon) Ding, of the University of Glasgow School of Computing Science, led the research of IntimaSea said the technology helped bridge the reluctance some people had to discuss their problems directly.
“Not everyone finds it easy to talk about their stress levels and their mental health, even with the people who are closest to them. IntimaSea was designed to take away some of that challenge by letting small groups keep tabs on each other and reach out with small displays of support,” she explained.
“The study suggests that was a success – it helped remove some of the challenge of expressing feelings for those users who sometimes struggled to do so, and offered new opportunities for people to communicate, either on the app or by starting conversations in real life.”
Researchers from Fudan University and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology co-authored the paper ‘IntimaSea: Exploring Shared Stress Display in Close Relationships’, is published in Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
The teams ran a two-week feasibility trial among themselves before a four-week test with 19 people split in nine groups of 2-3 people each consisting of partners, peer relations and friends.
While the research depended on voluntary participation, Ding said the hope was it could be scaled up for wider use.
Photo: Priscilla du Preez
