Monitoring driver stress during highway driving using wearable bio-signal sensors

Various functions for improving automobile seat comfort have been developed to reduce driver stress. However, how drivers respond to the seat comfort functions in real driving has not yet been studied. This experiment evaluated the effect of a seat air-conditioning system (ACS) on driver stress by tracking changes in various bio-signals during 60-min highway driving. Heart rate, heart rate variability, skin conductance, and respiration rates were quantified using non-invasive sensors from 13 drivers while varying the seat ACS condition in hot weather. Study results show that the high-frequency power of the heart rate variability, mean skin conductance level, and mean respiration rate detected the changes in the seat ACS over 60%, implying the possibility of seat comfort monitoring using the bio-signals. Further research should be conducted with various environmental or driver conditions to improve detection performance.