Psychophysiological Touch Screen Stress Analyzer

• US 20130002432A1
• Filed: 09/11/2012
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thorad, LLC
• Original Assignee: Phillip R. Sprague
• Inventors: Sprague, Phillip R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,502,691 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/16 Devices for psychotechnics using teaching or educational appliances G09B1/00 - G09B7/00; Testing reaction times ; Devices for evaluating the psychological state
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/164 Lie detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4884 inducing physiological or psychological stress, e.g. applications for stress testing

Abstract

The Psychophysiological Touch Screen Stress Analyzer is capable of capturing information on how a person emotionally reacts to a series of verbal, visual, or written stimulus when the person touches the touch screen computer monitor in response to the stimulus.

Claims

1. A system for analyzing emotional stress of a subject, the system comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium configured to store executable programmed modules and information;

a processor communicatively coupled with the non-transitory computer readable medium and configured to execute programmed modules stored therein;

a touch screen monitor communicatively coupled with the processor and configured to display information to a subject and receive a touch input from the subject;

a survey module stored in the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by the processor, the survey module configured to provide a series of questions on the touch screen monitor and store in the non-transitory computer readable medium input from the subject as responses to said series of questions;

an analysis module configured to analyze each response to said series of questions and determine a muscle tremor reaction pattern calculated by a pressure value and a time duration value of the touch input, the analysis module further configured to calculate an emotional reaction of the subject to each question based on said muscle tremor reaction pattern and compare the calculated emotional reaction of a first portion of questions in said series of questions to a second portion of questions in said series of questions.

2. A touch screen stress analyzer system comprising at least one processor communicatively coupled with at least one non-transitory computer readable medium, wherein the processor is programmed to analyze emotional stress of a subject by:

presenting a first question on a touch screen monitor device;

sensing a first touch of the subject on the touch screen monitor device in response to presenting the first question;

determining a muscle tremor reaction pattern for the first question based on a pressure value of the first touch of the subject and a time duration value of the first touch of the subject;

presenting a second question on the touch screen monitor device;

sensing a second touch of the subject on the touch screen monitor device in response to presenting the second question;

determining a muscle tremor reaction pattern for the second question based on a pressure value of the second touch of the subject and a time duration value of the second touch of the subject;

calculating an emotional stress of the subject based on said muscle tremor reaction pattern for the first question and said muscle tremor reaction pattern for the second question.

3. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon one or more sequences of instructions for causing one or more processors to perform the steps for analyzing emotional stress of a subject, the steps comprising:

presenting a question on a touch screen monitor device;

sensing a touch of the subject on the touch screen monitor device in response to presenting the question;

determining a pressure value of the touch of the subject on a touch screen monitor device, wherein the pressure value represents a pressure of the touch on the touch screen monitor;

determining a time duration value of the touch of the subject on the touch screen monitor device, wherein the time duration value represents a time duration of the touch on the touch screen monitor;

determining a muscle tremor reaction pattern based on the pressure value of the touch of the subject on a touch screen monitor device and the time duration value of the touch of the subject on a touch screen monitor device; and

calculating an emotional reaction to said question based on said muscle tremor reaction pattern.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the steps further comprise determining a location value of the touch of the subject on a touch screen monitor device, wherein the location value represents a location on the touch screen monitor.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 4, wherein the steps further comprise calculating an emotional reaction to said question based on said location, muscle tremor reaction and time duration values.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the steps further comprise presenting a first series of questions and calculating an emotional reaction baseline.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the steps further comprise presenting a second series of questions that is different from said first series of questions and comparing the calculated emotional reaction for each question in said second series of questions to said emotional reaction baseline.