Too expensive with no clear instructions on how to pull data in real-time. I had to find other wristbands after I bought my first E4.

Didn't see any instructions

Thanks! Did you use EmpaticaRT ?

Chee, I think amongst other things it would depend upon the age of the participants and whether the experiments are home or laboratory based. What type of investigations do you have in mind?

Yes, I understand. I was asking if you used the EmpaticaRT app with the E4; EmpaticaRT is the app which displays data in real time.

I did use it to view the data only but couldn't do realtime logging...and now I can't even login the app anymore..

for such an expensive piece of wristband, I sure hope that it will work well! 

I am looking into this product for research purposes

This product is really good for research (I've used it many times). If you're not a developer they have an app (iOS and Android) called EmpaticaRT that let's you stream and visualize data in real time. You can also develop your own apps with their APIs (iOS, Android, Windows Server). Otherwise, you can store data offline and upload it and visualize later! See: https://developer.empatica.com/

Hi Eiman Kanjo ,

which device did you use instead of the E4?

Microsoft band2

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/band/techspecs

Much cheaper and it has an impressive list of sensors including:

Optical heart rate sensor

3-axis accelerometer/gyro

Gyrometer

GPS

Ambient light sensor

Skin temperature sensor

UV sensor

Capactive sensor

Galvanic skin response

Microphone

Barometer

I have built my own app to collect the data and link it to other sensors such as Noise monitor on the phone, self report labels, and the Phone's GPS (the band we have doesnt has GPS)..etc.

Is the Microsoft band still available? I thought they took it out of the market.

Microsoft has discontinued the development , but the band still available on Amazon. I think Samsung is working on something similar, but ot yet available for the market.

Hey, i'm interested too to find another alternative to E4. For development and some pilot test. Do you know any other option to E4?

https://www.biovotion.com/

http://www.shimmersensing.com/

https://www.movisens.com/en/

Thanks Eiman Kanjo !

I asked Everion people about availability of the device in my country. There isn't information online about countries, stock or prices.

The other two links are great. A lot of info. They are more related to medical devices. A little bit limited for my application, because i need a combination of sensors. GSR + Hear Rate + PPG + motion.

Hi,

did anyone already try the Biovotion Everion device? I would be really interested about its usefulness.

The E4 device is one of those being used in the European RADAR-CNS.org programme which is developing and validating a new platform for remote measuring technology in depression, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis.

This poster has some information about E4 being used in an epilepsy study:

https://www.radar-cns.org/sites/radarcns/files/RADAR-base%20Epilepsy_FINAL.pdf

The poster shows traces obtained from the E4 recorded during a focal seizure.

The software from RADAR-CNS is open source (a website RADAR-base.org has been created for platform information) and there are a number of supported devices: https://radar-base.org/index.php/data-sensors/supported-devices/

The platform is currently being used in three observational studies, one for each of the three conditions above.

To support the technical and clinical work in this programme I am personally involved with a translational workpackage called 'Clinical Pathways' which is exploring the use in practice for RMT in neurology and mental health. We have an open online survey and so I'd be delighted if you were able to share the following link with your clinical or allied health professional colleagues or contacts: https://nottingham.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/radarcns

Thanks in advance.

The E4 can be used to calculate Heart Rate Variability, but how to do so is not as simple as I was hoping. Has anyone managed to find an easy to follow guide for calculating HRV with the E4? Thank you!

I looked further to see that apparently only Kubios premium works with the E4, not the free version.

Pamela Palmer , did you already try the procedure with the premium version? If so, does it work satisfactorily?

I am experimenting with the E4 as well and after reading the recommendation article on the Empatica website (https://support.empatica.com/hc/en-us/articles/202872739-Recommended-tools-for-signal-processing-and-data-analysis), I thought it would be no problem to use Kubios right away.

Torsten Kramer - I have experimented with it a bit but I think that I need to refine my settings somewhat. We are on holidays right now, so I will likely not get back tonit until September. I am able tomopen the files using Kubios premium and do get data /results, but there seems to be a discrepancy between the HRV data in the files and HRV data using a polar heart rate strap tajen duringva similar time period.

I emailed Kubios and they offered to review the files for me which I was very appreciative of and will have them do next month.

It's there any way to download E4 sessions without uploading the data to their cloud? For me this is the main issue.

Carlos Vega

According to their website, empatica only allows access to their data through E4 Connect: https://support.empatica.com/hc/en-us/articles/201608896-Data-export-and-formatting-from-E4-connect-

Yes, that was my understanding when I talk with them. There is no way to work with sessions unless you go through their cloud.

I would not recommend using Empatica E4 to calculate HRV. We have compared PPG (as used in E4) versus ECG and it overly sensitive to any motion for the data to be usable.

Pamela Palmer, are there any news regarding your request to Empatica? I would be very interested in updates.

Gustavo de Oliveira Almeida, your comment is very interesting. Is there a publication from you, in which I can read this in more detail?

Hi. Sorry - I haven’t done anything with this recently. My husband had some medical issues and though he is luckily fine now the last couple of months have been a bit of a blur. Coincidentally I just cane across my E4, which I had somehow misplaced.

Kubios said that they would examine my file, and confirmed that tge subject must be still to accurately calculate HRV.

Torsten Hammann , it is an upcoming article. We would be happy to share with you !

HRV is not reliable when the patient is in motion but we can compute HRV when the patient is still with the help of Accelerometer data it can be easily determined.

So.. I concur that the Polar heart rate monitor is much better for measuring HRV when the subject is in motion. The E4 seems good with its other measurements. I just got an email today that they have a new watch announced though not yet available: https://www.empatica.com/en-int/embraceplus/.

I am really interested in having a stress monitoring device..both for myself as well as research purposes. Have had my eye on Empatica for a while but from the above discussions, I am not sure anymore. Also, would anyone think EEG measuring devices may be better for stress detection than HRV or GSR measuring devices? Happy to hear thoughts on this.

Furqan, Pamela,

When you say in motion, does that include typing?

For that, I would think that Coresense would work better. If users can limit their typing ... https://elitehrv.com/corsense

Thank you for your suggestion. I do not think I can have informant touch type texts with that on, though :-(

Hi Gustavo de Oliveira Almeida,

do you have experience in working with the CoreSense sensor? I am interested in using it in my study, so I would appreciate any additional comments on this matter!

Hi Aleksandra Lachowicz , in my lab we have CoreSense, but I have not used it personally, but will let you know as soon as I test it !

Gustavo de Oliveira Almeida, thank you for the reply. I am very curious and look forward to your comments!

Dear all:

Is there in the market an alternative to Empatica E4? I need to capture HR, HRV, EDA and accelerometer, with a frequency similar to Empatica. Any experience with another research device?

Angel Jimenez-Molina , to my knowledge the E4 is still the only commercially available device for wrist-based EDA . Unfortunately the wrist is not an optimal location to record EDA due to the limited number of sweat glands, so the trade off for convenience is only having usable signal part of the time. This trade off also applies to HRV measurements on the wrist using PPG, which are most reliable when the wearer is sleeping or at rest, as they are very sensitive to movement artefacts.

If using wet electrodes is an option in your study design (e.g. you will not be measuring longer than a day or two at a time), I'd recommend measuring with EDA with wet electrodes on the palm, such as with the VU-AMS 5fs (which we build here at our department in Amsterdam) or Movisens EDAmove. These devices also measure ECG rather than PPG, so can provide more reliable HRV indices. The Movisens has a smaller form, while the VU-AMS also measures impedance cardiography to capture respiration, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (vagal tone) and cardiac output.

We've been experimenting with FitBit Sense and pulling out the data through an open-source code (the heart rate only, though). We've also been researching for an alternative to E4.

Shauheen S.R. Etminan - nice! With what resolution do you get the Fitbit Sense PPG heart rate data? I have extracted the skin conductance data and was pleased to find the raw data at 1Hz. But of course it is no real alternative for the E4 as you can only measure EDA when placing your hand over the metal rim on the watch.