Efficacy of real-time audio biofeedback on physiological strains for simulated tasks with medium and heavy loads

Excessive workloads (physical and mental) has been indicated as potential risk factors to health problems in many industries. Incorporating with wearable sensors, biofeedback techniques have been applied in many fields to acquire various physiological responses and convey audio/visual signals for operators to lighten workloads, regulate stress, improve health, and better performances. This study evaluates the efficacy of integrating audio biofeedback device with real-time personal physiological strains monitoring system on reducing physiological strains for simulated treadmill walking tasks with medium and heavy loads. Ten male subjects voluntarily participated in this study. The results indicated that biofeedback with associated measure showed significant effect on skin temperature and heart rate. Task load showed significant effect on all physiological responses including heart rate, tympanic temperature, and skin temperature, and subjective score of perceived exertion. Providing audio biofeedback signal to cue the subjects to take precaution measure could decrease skin temperature and heart rate of the subjects by 0.18°C and 6.1 bpm, respectively. Combining wearable sensing technology and audio biofeedback technique could be implemented to provide real-time monitoring information to help the workers take precaution measures to reduce workloads and potentially preserve their health and safety