Design and Simulation of a device for measuring the Galvanic Skin Response

Abstract

The galvanic skin response (GSR) or the Electrodermal Activity (EDA) reflects the activity of the Autonomous Nervous System. It opens the door to several applications such as the detection of the stress level, the recognition of emotions and lie detection. It is an interesting tool in exploring the physiological activity of a person, as it is an easy measure to be implemented and inexpensive compared to other existing techniques. Our project was initially concerned by the realization of device for measuring and analyzing the galvanic skin response. However, because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the closure of the universities and consequently the laboratories from March up today (end of September), the project was limited to simulating the different electronic circuits and acquisitions environment... The proposed design of the device consists of two main parts respectively hardware and software parts. The hardware part is concerned with all electronic circuits necessary to detect the GSR signal starting from the transducer, passing by shaping circuits up to the acquisition. The proposed transducer are two electrodes placed on the phalanges of the fingers of the hand, the shaping circuits are the Wheatstone bridge, amplifiers and filters, the acquisition is achieved by an Arduino Board. The software part consists on developing programs for the acquisition and visualization of the GSR signal on a PC Monitor. The proposed circuits have been tested by simulating their functions using Proteus. The obtained results are satisfactory.