E. Aarts et al. (Eds.): AmI 2008, LNCS 5355, pp. 343–359, 2008. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008 Stone-Type Physiological Sensing Device for Daily Monitoring in an Ambient Intelligence Environment * Ahyoung Choi 1 , Yoosoo Oh 1 , Goeun Park 2 , and Woontack Woo 1,2 1 GIST U-VR Lab.,Gwangju 500-712, S. Korea 2 GIST CTI, Gwangju 500-712, S. Korea {achoi,yoh}@gist.ac.kr, ge9156@hotmail.com, wwoo@gist.ac.kr Abstract. Recently there has been increasing research into mobile physiological sensing devices to explore the benefits in the areas of monitoring health and well-being. However, previous works have mainly focused on functionality, and less so on affective shape, comfort use, and stable sensing. In this work, we propose a stone-type physiological sensing device for general users, rather than professional experts. We found that our device was comfortable, stable and had aesthetic appeal for users during monitoring. To develop an affective shape, and to increase comfort, we applied a user-centered design process. We also used context-based physiological signal analysis to obtain stable analysis results according to individual users. As an application, we developed a rainbow ambient display to give visual feedback to users. We expect that this product can be applied in various healthcare applications. Keywords: Physiological sensing device, Real-time physiological signal analysis, Context awareness, Daily health monitoring. 1 Introduction Currently there has been increased research interest in physiological sensing devices for use in daily life [1-3]. For developing sensing devices in Ambient Intelligence (AmI) environments, AmI technology is of interest because people normally do not carry their belongings and any portable devices. The following issues need to be considered: unobtrusive monitoring of physiological status with embedded sensors, intelligent analysis methods for health monitoring, and appropriate altering of the ambient display [4-5]. With the advent of wireless communication technology, light- weight Micro-electromechanical Systems (MEMS) technology, and greater computing power on mobile computing devices, various kinds of physiological sensing devices have been developed [6-7]. These include glove-type, wrist-type, armband-type, ring-type and embedded unconstrained-type sensing devices, all of which can be equipped in beds or bathrooms [8-11]. Glove-type sensing devices can conceal sensing lines and therefore have better aesthetics compared to the wrist-type and band-type sensing devices. In the case of wrist-type sensing devices, uncorrupted * This research is supported by Foundation of UCN Project, the MKE 21st Century Frontier R&D Program in Korea and is a result of subproject UCN 08B3-O1-20S.