Conclusion & Future Work

From this initial study it has been possible to identify that based on geographic location there are consistent stimuli that effect a persons EDA through their physiological responses. This has been made possible through the creation of a visualization tool which enables users to view their movements with their EDA allowing them to annotate their stories to highlight where consistent changes take place. Through this process it has been identified that EDA increases within locations where the user is forced to engage with the environment such as when crossing the road or a railway line.

This study has also demonstrated the potential of using EDA in the prediction of arousal through the use of basic data mining and analysis techniques. This has illustrated the possibility of creating considerate adaptive maps that are tailored to the individuals needs.

Future Work

Continuing this work the next stage would be to bring in further data sets looking at how arousal levels alter not only by location but potentially by the time of day, walking/driving speed, who you are co located with etc. Within this current experiment it has intentionally naively assumed all stimuli are an effect of the location and so in further work it is important to attempt to combine further data sources and draw conclusions regarding their relationships.

As demonstrated within the predicting arousal section I believe there is a great possibility of using EDA with reality mining based techniques in order to create new applications with further insights into our arousal states. I believe having the awareness of how a location can effect an individual will help lead to new personalized experiences and ensure distressing experiences are avoided. For example this work could be continued to create an adaptive map for people within the autism spectrum who may benefit from identifying locations or routes which may likely be distressing.