Angelo Evaluation: application of a multisensor system for psycho-physiological stress detection in working environments

A new application of sensors technology to biomedical measurements is presented, consisting in the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of work related psycho-physiological stress. Our new apparatus is integrated in the architecture of a research product named ANGELO, which is an intelligent electronic assistant ("e-Assistant"), aimed at offering transparent and fast help to operators and supervisors in call-centres. The Angelo Evaluation component, which is one of the ANGELO architecture main blocks, is the one mainly considered in this work; it uses sensors to monitor environmental and physiological variables: heart beat rate, galvanic skin resistance, CO/sub 2/ and O/sub 2/ concentration and temperature are continuously measured and the acquired data are then evaluated on the basis of the subjective perception of stress, estimated (through the value of a "burnout" index) by an appropriate use of psychometric tests. Preliminary measurements are reported and results of data analysis performed by means of statistics and pattern recognition are discussed in order to give an example of stress evaluation.