PResCon: Physiological Response Augmented Continuous Emotion Annotation Tool

Swarnali Banik, Akhilesh Adithya, Bivas Mitra, Sougata Sen, Snehanshu Saha, Surjya Ghosh

Abstract: We present an annotation tool designed to collect fine-grain continuous emotion ground truth labels and physiological responses as users watch different videos. In the existing literature, continuous emotion annotations are typically collected as self-reports based on the 2D Circumplex model through auxiliary devices (a joystick or similar tools) during video consumption. However, the users face challenges as they need to use an auxiliary device and rely on the Circumplex model’s valence and arousal axis without clear indication of distinct emotion labels. Therefore, to overcome these challenges, we introduce PResCon, a tool that allows to collect emotion annotations using keyboard arrow keys only (without using any auxiliary device) and guiding users towards the discrete emotions (e.g., amused, stressed, bored, relaxed) by embedding them on the Circumplex plane. The tool encompasses two major components - (a) a web interface that displays various stimuli videos and provision of collecting emotion labels (valence and arousal) by moving the keyboard arrow keys and (b) a sensor setup (based on Arduino) that allows to collect the physiological responses (heart rate and galvanic skin response) passively during video consumption. In summary, the PResCon tool facilitates research in the domain of affective computing by allowing to collect fine-grain continuous emotion annotations and the physiological responses in real-time during video consumption.