💻 Can You Hack the Truth? Exploring Stress Detection with a GSR Sensor

DetectED
Jan 30
2 min read

Updated: Feb 17

What if your body could reveal stress before you even realize you’re anxious?

In this STEM Club project, students explore how invisible body signals — like sweat, electrical resistance, and data — can be transformed into tools for early health detection.

Using the same principles behind smartwatches, mental health apps, and clinical studies, students build and test a Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) sensor to investigate how stress and anxiety show up in the body.

Eye-level view of students collaborating on an AI project — Presentation Cover: Can You Hack The Truth?

Why This Project Matters

AI and biomedical technology aren’t just about code — they’re about understanding humans.

Through this project, students explore:

How the nervous system responds to stress
How biological signals can be measured safely and non-invasively
How data becomes insight in healthcare and mental health monitoring

This is an introduction to how real detection systems are designed, not just how they’re used.

The Science Behind It

When you’re stressed, your autonomic nervous system reacts:

Sweat glands activate → skin conductivity increasesElectrical resistance drops → measurable voltage change

This signal is called Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) — a biomarker used in:

Anxiety and panic attack research
PTSD monitoring
Sleep and burnout tracking
Wearable health technology

Students don’t just learn this — they build it.

What Students Build

In this presentation and activity, students:

Construct a low-cost GSR sensor using a micro:bit
Create finger-pad electrodes and wire a voltage divider
Program the system to detect calm, elevated stress, and stress spikes
Calibrate a baseline and analyze real-time data

The sensor displays stress levels visually, sparking discussion about accuracy, ethics, and real-world applications.

Interactive Challenge: Who’s Lying?

To test the system, students run simulations:

One student becomes the “subject.”
Others read neutral, stressful, and cognitively demanding prompts.
The group analyzes signal spikes and patterns.

Students debate:

Is this detecting stress or deception?
Where could it fail?
Should this ever be used without consent?

There are no “right answers” — only better questions.

Health, Ethics, and Equity

This project goes beyond tech.

Students examine why mental health monitoring is often:

Expensive
Inaccessible
Poorly designed for diverse communities

They’re challenged to think about how low-cost biosensors could support:

Schools and youth stress programs
Remote or under-resourced clinics
Communities affected by stigma around mental health

The focus isn’t just innovation, but responsible innovation.

What This Leads To

This single project can grow into:

A science fair investigation
An AI model trained on biosignal patterns
A redesigned wearable focused on inclusion
A real biomedical research question

At William Aberhart STEM Club, projects aren’t endpoints — they’re starting lines.

Explore the Full Presentation

The attachments include:

📊 The slide deck used in class
🧾 Printable activity worksheets
⌨️The code explained in detail