HandWave : design and manufacture of a wearable wireless skin conductance sensor and housing

Abstract

This thesis report details the design and manufacture of HandWave, a wearable wireless Bluetooth skin conductance sensor, and dedicated housing. The HandWave collects Electrodermal Activity (EDA) data by measuring skin conductance over a pair of electrodes. The EDA data signal is used to infer the excitement level of the subject. The injection-molded housing is affixed to the wrist of the subject, and the electrodes are positioned on the fingers and/or palm. The HandWave amplification board utilizes a PIC to sample the EDA signal level with an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), control the gain of the amplification circuitry, and pass the data to a Bluetooth module. The Bluetooth module manages the wireless connection to a remote base-station and streams the EDA data over this link. Driver software on the base-station recomposes the EDA signal into standard units of conductance for display or further analysis.