A.I.

Stress Meter

VISVESWARAIAH TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY Santhibastawad Road, Machhe, Belgaum

Technical Seminar Report on

THE STRESS METER

Submitted in partial fulfilment for the award of degree of

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
in Telecommunication by Anitha Under the guidance of Mrs. SAMPADA H.K Lecturer, Department of TE, AIT.

Department Of Telecommunication Engineering. 2010-2011

(Affiliated to Visveswaraiah Technological University, Belgaum.)

Page 1

A.I.T

Stress Meter

Certificate: This is to certify that the seminar entitled THE STRESS METER is carried out by Anitha during the academic year 2010-2011. The Seminar report has been approved as it satisfies the academic requirements in respect of seminar prescribed for the Bachelor of Engineering degree.

Page 2

A.I.T

Stress Meter

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The satisfaction and euphoria that accompany the successful completion of any task would be incomplete without the mention of the people who made it possible whose constant guidance and encouragement crowned our efforts with success.

I am indeed very happy to greatly acknowledge the numerous personalities involved in lending their help to make this seminar a successful one.

I express my sincere regard to my Seminar coordinator Mrs.KEHKESHAN JALLAL S, Lecturer, Department of Telecom.

I would like to express my gratitude to my guide, MRS. SAMPADA H.K, Lecturer, Department of Telecom for his valuable guidance and encouragement.

I also express my gratitude to MRS. VASANTHI S, HOD, Department of Telecommunication for her valuable support.
Page 3

A.I.T

Stress Meter

At this juncture, I would like to thank my parents and all my friends for their total support and encouragement.

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT...........................................................................6 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................7 STRESS METER EVOLUTION..............................................................................................8 PURPOSE OF THE STRESS METER ....................................................................................8 BLOCK DIAGRAM AND OVERVIEW .................................................................................9
4.1 Principle of Stress Meter: ............................................................................9 4.2 Block diagram: .............................................................................................9 4.3 Block diagram description: ..........................................................................9 4.4 Application: ................................................................................................10

COMPONENTS OVERVIEW ...............................................................................................10

5.1 DOT/BAR Display Driver: ............................................................................10 5.2 The Piezo Element: ....................................................................................11 5.3 The Touch Pad: ..........................................................................................13 5.4 Light Emitting Diodes: ..............................................................................14 5.5 Regulated Power Supply: ...........................................................................17 5.6 Circuit Diagram Of Stress Meter: ...............................................................19

CIRCUIT OPERATION .........................................................................................................21

6.1 Operation of The Circuit: ............................................................................21 6.2 Circuit Connections: ...................................................................................22 6.3 Role Played By Touch Pads: .......................................................................24 6.4 The LED Display: ........................................................................................24 Page 4

A.I.T

Stress Meter

6.5 Power Supply Generations:.........................................................................25 6.6 The Stress Meter: .......................................................................................27

SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................28
7.1 Brief Note:.................................................................................................. 28 7.2 Applications: ..............................................................................................28 7.3 Benefits: .................................................................................................... 31

APPENDIX..............................................................................................................................32 9. REFERENCES....................................................................................................................35

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Dot/Bar display driver.............................................................................................11 Figure 2 The Piezo element.....................................................................................................12 Figure 3 Piezoelectric Diaphragm............................................................................................13 Figure 4 Touch Pad..................................................................................................................14 Figure 5 Light Emitting Diode................................................................................................14 Figure 6 Inside LED.................................................................................................................16 Figure 7 Regulated power supply............................................................................................18 Figure 8 Voltage regulator.......................................................................................................19 Figure 9 Circuit diagram of Stress meter ................................................................................20 Figure 10 Basic block diagram showing the operation of the circuit......................................23 Figure 11 Role Played by Touch Pads.....................................................................................24 Figure 12 LED Vs Threshold Voltage.....................................................................................25 Figure 13 Bridge Rectifier Circuit..........................................................................................26 Figure 14 The Power supply generation.................................................................................27 Figure 15 The Stress meter......................................................................................................27 Figure 16 PIN Diagram of LM3915.........................................................................................32 Figure 17 output characteristics of LM3915............................................................................34

Page 5

A.I.T

Stress Meter

ABSTRACT
Stress is a term that refers to the sum of physical, mental, and emotional strains or tensions on a person. Feelings of stress in humans result from interactions between persons and their environment that we perceived as straining or exceeding their adaptive capabilities and threatening their well-being. The element of perception indicates that human stress responses reflect differences in personality as well as differences in physical strength or health. This stress allows assess ones emotional pain. If the stress is very high, it gives visual indication through LED display along with a warning yellow light.

Page 6

A.I.T

Stress Meter

INTRODUCTION
Stress is the very common condition of every human being. Stress is nothing more than a society acceptable form of mental illness. This stress meter allows to assess the emotional pain. If the stress is very high, it gives visual indication on a LED display along with a warning light. Stress meter is based on the principle that the resistance of the skin varies in accordance with your emotional states. Resistance varies inversely proportional to the stress. If the stress level is high the skin offers less resistance, and if relaxed resistance is high. The low resistance of the skin during high stress is due to an increase in the blood supply to skin. This property of skin is used to measure stress level. Using suitable circuitry we can convert the amount of stress a human being feels to a varying voltage. The touch pads of stress meter sense the voltage variations across the touch pads and convey the same to circuit. The circuit is very sensitive and detects even a minute voltage variation across touch pad.

Page 7

A.I.T

Stress Meter

STRESS METER EVOLUTION

In an article Stress and Mind Control on 21/03/20010, Roberto Bonomi stated that When we speak of the fabulous relaxation capacity that mind control gives us, the first thing that comes to our mind, is that we will be able to take off, the excesses of nervous tension, the stress; and this is a great benefit. Because suppose that you could measure stress in inches, and that you have stress zero when the meter is located in zero. Based on this, our seminar is aimed to give a visual indication of ones stress through a light-emitting diode display along with a warning yellow light.

PURPOSE OF THE STRESS METER

The purpose of stress meter is to assess the emotional pain of human being. The stress can cause hair to fall, acne to break out and many other problems. These manifestations of stress can cause even more anxiety. Stress causes cortical levels to increase within the body, which increases oil production, which causes acne breakouts. So this stress meter is to solve all the problems caused due to stress by checking the stress of an individual and taking care before any serious problem occurs.

Page 8

A.I.T

Stress Meter

BLOCK DIAGRAM AND OVERVIEW

4.1 Principle of Stress Meter:
The stress meter is based on the principle that the variations in the resistance of the skin due to blood pressure of ones body can be directly converted and transmitted into analog voltage levels to give the visual indication of human stress using a proper circuitry.

4.2 Block diagram:

230 volts AC supply

Input through Touch pads

Transformer

Regulated power supply

Dot/Bar display driver

Output Stress Level Indication

High Stress Indication

4.3 Block diagram description:

The 230 volts ac power supply is given to the transformer. The transformer steps down the input voltage line and isolates the power supply from the power line. A full wave bridge rectifier circuit along with a voltage regulator is used to give a regulated power supply
Page 9

A.I.T

Stress Meter

to the circuit .The input touch pads are used to sense the resistance of our skin and this input is fed to the dot/bar display driver. The dot/bar display driver accepts the input through the touch pads which sense the small change in resistance the dot/bar driver gives the output stress level indication according the input. The output is indicated on a led display .The ten leds act like the stress level indicators form zero stress level to high stress level on a scale of ten. The high stress detected from the dot/ bar display driver is indicated through a warning yellow light.

4.4 Application:
Each LED in stress meter operates with a 3dB difference from the previous one, and a jumper is provided to allow dot or bar mode. This project is an essential part of the expandable analyzer and one meter circuit is used for each frequency band. There are many other uses for a simple LED meter. They are ideal as power meters on amplifiers, can be used with mixers (including the high quality mixer), preamps and any other application where it is important to know the signal level. LM3915's 3 dB/step display is suited for signals with wide dynamic range, such as audio level, power, light intensity or vibration. Audio applications include average or peak level indicators, power meters and RF signal strength meters. Replacing conventional meters with an LED bar graph results in a faster responding, more rugged display with high visibility that retains the ease of interpretation of an analog display.

COMPONENTS OVERVIEW
5.1 DOT/BAR Display Driver:
TheL M 3 9 1 5 is a monolithic integrated circuit that senses analog voltage levels and drives ten LEDs, LCDs or vacuum fluorescent displays, providing a logarithmic 3dB/step analog display. One pin changes the display from a bar graph to a moving dot display. LED current drive is regulated and programmable, eliminating the need for current limiting
Page 10

A.I.T

Stress Meter

resistors. The whole display system can operate from a single supply as low as 3V or as high as 25V. LED current drive is regulated and programmable, eliminating the need for current limiting resistors. The IC contains an adjustable voltage reference and an accurate ten-step voltage divider. The high-impedance input buffer accepts signals down to ground and up to within 1.5V of the positive supply. Further, it needs no protection against inputs of 35V. The input buffer drives 10 individual comparators referenced to the precision divider. Accuracy is typically better than 1 dB.

Figure 1: Dot/Bar display driver

5.2 The Piezo Element:

Piezoelectric diaphragm is a basic electronic sound component. It has the advantages of simple structure, stable performance and high reliability. It is not only the core element of piezoelectric buzzers and the alarms, but also used as shock sensors in many sensitive equipments.

Page 11

A.I.T

Stress Meter

Figure 2 The Piezo element.

Basically, the sound source of a piezoelectric sound component is a piezoelectric diaphragm. A piezoelectric diaphragm consists of a piezoelectric ceramic plate which has electrodes on both sides and a metal plate (brass or stainless steel, etc.). A piezoelectric ceramic plate is attached to a metal plate with adhesives. Applying D.C. voltage between electrodes of a piezoelectric diaphragm causes mechanical distortion due to the piezoelectric effect.

Design Considerations:
These devices contain no electronics, and require external circuitry to produce an audible tone. Presence of the feedback tab enables the designer to simplify the drive circuit. Voltage applied to the device produces mechanical distortions which are usable, among other applications, in alarms and sensors.

Page 12

A.I.T

Stress Meter

Figure 3 Piezoelectric Diaphragm

5.3 The Touch Pad:

The Touch Pad is two tinned pads on the PC board. When touched them with a finger, the resistance of the finger is reduced by a factor of about 100 - 400 by the gain of the emitter-follower transistor and this puts a HIGH on the input pin of the chip. The input impedance of the chip is fairly high (about 50k) but when you add a pull-down resistor (to prevent stray signals being detected by the chip), the impedance decreases. The answer is to add the emitter-follower transistor.

Page 13

A.I.T

Stress Meter

Figure 4 Touch Pad

5.4 Light Emitting Diodes:

A light emitting diode (LED) is a PN junction semiconductor diode that emits photons when electrical current passes through the junction in the forward direction, the electrical carriers give up energy proportional to the forward voltage drop across the diode junction, this energy is emitted in the form of light.

Figure 5 Light Emitting Diode.

Page 14

A.I.T

Stress Meter

LEDs are used in numerical displays such as those on electronic digital watches and pocket calculators. By definition, it is a solid-state device that controls current without heated filaments and is therefore very reliable. LEDs are highly monochromatic, emitting a pure color in a narrow frequency range. The color emitted from an LED is identified by peak wavelength and measured in nanometers. LEDs are made from gallium-based crystals that contain one or more additional materials such as phosphorous to produce a distinct color. LED light output varies with the type of chip, encapsulation, efficiency of individual wafer lots and other variables. Several LED manufacturers use terms such as "super-bright," and "ultra- bright" to describe LED intensity. Because LEDs are solid-state devices they are not subject to catastrophic failure when operated within design parameters. LEDs are current-driven devices, not voltage driven. Although drive current and light output are directly related, exceeding the maximum current rating will produce excessive heat within the LED chip due to excessive power dissipation. The color of an LED is determined by the semiconductor material, not by the coloring of the 'package' (the plastic body). LEDs are available in red, orange, amber, yellow, green, and blue and white colors. LEDs are specially constructed to release a large number of photons outward. Additionally, they are housed in a plastic bulb that concentrates the light in a particular direction .

Page 15

A.I.T

Stress Meter

Figure 6 Inside LED.

Design Parameters:
Never an LED should be connected directly to a battery or power supply. It will be destroyed almost instantly because too much current will pass through and burn it out. An LED must have a resistor connected in series to limit the current through the LED otherwise it will burn out almost instantly and try to avoid connecting them in parallel.

Page 16

A.I.T

Stress Meter

Equation to determine the required resistance:

Resistance = (Source Voltage LED Voltage Drop) / desired current To drive an LED from a system, the following values are used: Source voltage = 13.4 volts (approximately) Voltage drop = 3.6 volts (typical for a blue or white LED) Desired current = 30 milliamps (typical value) So the resistor we need is: (13.4 3.6) / (30 / 1000) = 327 ohms (Approximately 330 ohms).

5.5 Regulated Power Supply:

Page 17

A.I.T

Stress Meter

In a typical linear power supply, AC line voltage is first down-converted to a smaller peak voltage using a transformer which is then rectified using a full wave bridge rectifier circuit. A capacitor filter is then used to smoothen the obtained sinusoidal signal. The residual periodic variation or ripple in this filtered signal is eliminated using an active regulator.

Figure 7 Regulated power supply. To obtain a DC power supply with both positive and negative output voltages, a center-tapped transformer is used, where a third wire is attached to the middle of the secondary winding and it is taken as the common ground point. Then voltages from the opposite ends of the winding will be positive or negative with respect to this point. Care should be taken while connecting 78XX and 79XX ICs.

Voltage Regulator:
The 7805 takes in a voltage between 7 and 30 volts and regulates it down to exactly 5volts. The first capacitor takes out any ripple coming from the transformer so that the 7805 is receiving a smooth input voltage, and the second capacitor acts as a load balancer to ensure consistent output from the 7805. The 7805 has three leads. If the 7805 is seen from the front (the side with printing on it), the three leads are, from left to right, input voltage (7 to 30 volts), ground, and output voltage (5 volts).

Page 18

A.I.T

Stress Meter

Figure 8 Voltage regulator

5.6 Circuit Diagram Of Stress Meter:

Page 19

A.I.T

Stress Meter

Figure 9 Circuit diagram of Stress meter

Page 20

A.I.T

Stress Meter

CIRCUIT OPERATION
6.1 Operation of The Circuit:
This stress meter circuit uses just one IC and a very few number of external components. It displays the input level in terms of 10 LEDs. The suggested input voltage can vary from 12V to 20V. The LM3915 IC contains an adjustable voltage reference and an accurate ten-step voltage divider. The high-impedance input buffer accepts signals down to ground and up to within 1.5V of the positive supply. Further, it needs no protection against inputs of 35V. The input buffer drives 10 individual comparators referenced to the precision divider. Accuracy is typically better than 1 dB. A high input impedance buffer operates with signals from ground to 12V, and is protected against reverse and over voltage signals. The signal is then applied to a series of 10 comparators; each of which is biased to a different comparison level by the resistor string. The LM3915 is extremely easy to apply. A 1.2V full- scale meter requires only one resistor in addition to the ten LEDs. One more resistor programs the full-scale anywhere from 1.2V to 12V independent of supply voltage. LED brightness is easily controlled with a single pot.

The following relations can be used to know the approximate values of current and reference voltages. Vref = 1.25 (1+R2/R1) + R2* 80UA I (LED) = (12.5V/R1) + (Vref/2.2K) The outputs can drive LCDs, vacuum fluorescents and incandescent bulbs as well as LEDs of any color. Multiple devices can be cascaded for a dot or bar mode display with a

Page 21

A.I.T

Stress Meter

range of 60 or 90 dB. LM3915s can also be cascaded with LM3914s for a linear/log display or with LM3916s for an extended-range VU meter.

6.2 Circuit Connections:

The pins 2, 4 and 8 of the LM3915 are grounded. 6 and 7 pins are shorted and a resistor is connected across them which is grounded. Pin 1 and pins 10 to 18 are connected to LEDs to be driven by the IC. Pin 9 and 11 are shorted to give a bar mode display.3 pin is given the input voltage. Pin 5 is used to connect the touch pads.

Page 22

A.I.T

Stress Meter

Figure 10 Basic block diagram showing the operation of the circuit.

Page 23

A.I.T

Stress Meter

6.3 Role Played By Touch Pads:

The touch pad which is a piezoelectric substance senses the skin resistance when touched with a finger and acts like the input to the circuit. The output stress level is indicated on the LED display. The high stress level is indicated by a warning yellow light. The following figure gives a clear idea of the principle behind the stress meter and the role played by the touch pads.

Figure 11 Role Played by Touch Pads

6.4 The LED Display:

Conducting pad (upper) Top view Conducting pad (lower) Resistance between the pads varies based on wetness and dryness of the skin of the finger Insulator strip (between the upper and lower pad) The output is indicated on a LED display .The ten LEDs act like the
Page 24

A.I.T

Stress Meter

stress level indicators form zero stress level to high stress level on a scale of ten. The high stress detected from the dot/ bar display driver is indicated by a yellow light.

Figure 12 LED Vs Threshold Voltage

6.5 Power Supply Generations:

The 230 volts ac power supply is fed to the transformer and the transformer in turn is connected to a bridge rectifier circuit. When four diodes are connected as shown in the figure, the circuit is called a BRIDGE RECTIFIER. The input to the circuit is applied to the diagonally opposite corners of the network, and the output is taken from the remaining two corners. On the positive half cycle of transformer secondary supply voltage, diodes D1 and D2 conduct, supplying this voltage to the load. On the negative half cycle of supply voltage, diodes D3 and D4 conduct supplying this voltage to the load. It can be seen from the waveforms that the peak inverse voltage of the diodes is only Vm .The average output voltage is the same as that for the center-tapped transformer full-wave rectifier. With a resistive load, the load current is identical in shape to the output voltage. Most loads are
Page 25

A.I.T

Stress Meter

inductive and the load current with these loads depends on the value of load resistance and load inductance so they do not conduct any current.

Figure 13 Bridge Rectifier Circuit. During the negative half-cycle, the top end of the transformer winding is negative. Now, D1 and D4 are forward biased, and D2 and D3 are reverse biased. Therefore, electrons move through D1, the resistor, and D4 in the direction shown by the blue arrows. As with the positive half-cycle, electrons move through the resistor from left to right. In this manner, the diodes keep switching the transformer connections to the resistor so that current always flows in only one direction through the resistor. The resistors can be replaced with any other circuit, including more power supply circuitry (such as the filter), and still see the same behavior from the bridge rectifier.

Page 26

A.I.T

Stress Meter

Figure 14 The Power supply generation. The output from the bridge rectifier is thus connected to voltage regulator 7805 to generate 5 volts regulated power supply to the circuit. The capacitors are used as filters to smoothen the sinusoidal signals.

6.6 The Stress Meter:

Figure 15 The Stress meter.

Page 27

A.I.T

Stress Meter

The LED 1 glows by default when the circuit is on. When a person touches the touch pad of the stress meter with his finger, it senses the skin resistance and hence the stress. On a scale of ten, stress levels from 0 to 10 can be observed, where the LED 10 when on gives a warning yellow light high stress indication.

SUMMARY
7.1 Brief Note:
In this project, is proposed a stress meter that indicates the stress level of a human being based on ones skin resistance on a scale of ten. The circuit uses the IC LM3915 which is a dot/bar display driver which can easily drive ten leds with a suggested input voltage. The touch pad which is a piezoelectric substance senses the skin resistance when touched with a finger and acts like the input to the circuit. The output stress level is indicated on the led display. The high stress level is indicated by a warning yellow light. The regulated power supply used in the project gives an input voltage of 5V for the circuit to operate. A switch is used to ON/OFF the circuit. LM3915s can also be cascaded with LM3914s for a linear/log display or with LM3916s for an extended-range VU meter.

7.2 Applications:
Stress meter is widely applicable in various meters and indicators. It is used as A simple LED meter: It is a meter which is used in many applications in which we have to show a visual displays using LEDs. To produce visible light when subjected to an electric current.

Page 28

A.I.T

Stress Meter

Signal level indicator: It is an indicator used to indicate the signal level in steps of 10 by glowing LEDs

In Peak detectors: A peak detector is a series connection of a diode and a capacitor outputting a DC voltage equal to the peak value of the applied AC signal. An AC voltage power is applied to peak detector, charges the capacitor to the peak of input. To measure the peak values and to show that using a visual display.

Page 29

A.I.T

Stress Meter

4) Light, audio, and power meters: If the level is crossed above the particular level it shows warning through a visual display.

Page 30

A.I.T

Stress Meter

5) Multiple devices can be cascaded for a dot or bar mode display with a range of 60 or 90 dB: Dot/bar display driver drives LEDs, LCDs or vaccum fluorescents. Bar/dot display mode externally selectable by user.

7.3 Benefits:
The circuit is absolutely free from ambient light. It is economical and a low budget project. Not a complex circuit. The components are easily available in the market and replaceable. Noise pulse do not have any effect on the circuit. LEDs can withstand the voltage even if no resistors are connected across.
Page 31

A.I.T

Stress Meter

Can be used easily to regularly check ones stress level.

APPENDIX

PIN DIAGRAM OF LM3915:

Figure 16 PIN Diagram of LM3915

DEFINITION OF TERMS:
Page 32

A.I.T

Stress Meter

Absolute Accuracy: The difference between the observed threshold voltage and the ideal threshold voltage for each comparator. Specified and tested with 10V across the internal voltage divider so that resistor ratio matching error predominates over comparator offset voltage. Adjust Pin Current: Current flowing out of the reference adjust pin when the reference amplifier is in the linear region. Comparator Gain: The ratio of the change in output current (ILED) to the change in input voltage (VIN) required to produce it for a comparator in the linear region.

Dropout Voltage: The voltage measured at the current source outputs required to make the output current fall by 10%. Input Bias Current: Current flowing out of the signal input when the input buffer is in the linear region. LED Current Regulation: The change in output current over the specified range of LED supply voltage (VLED) as measured at the current source outputs. As the forward voltage of an LED does not change significantly with a small change in forward current, this is equivalent to changing the voltage at the LED anodes by the same amount. Line Regulation: The average change in reference output voltage (VREF) over the specified range of supply voltage (V+). Load Regulation: The change in reference output voltage over the specified range of load current (IL (REF)).

Page 33

A.I.T

Stress Meter

Offset Voltage: The differential input voltage which must be applied to each comparator to bias the output in the linear region. Most significant error when the voltage across the internal voltage divider is small. Specified and tested with pin 6 voltage (VRHI) equal to pin 4 voltage (VRLO). Relative Accuracy: The difference between any two adjacent threshold points. Specified and tested with 10V across the internal voltage divider so that resistor ratio matching error predominates over comparator offset voltage.

Figure 17 output characteristics of LM3915

Page 34

A.I.T

Stress Meter

9. REFERENCES
Journals: [1] Roberto Bonomi, Stress and Mind Control, dated 21/03/2008 Reference Books: [2]Joseph Edminster and Mahmood Nahvi, Electric circuits, Schaums Outline, 2003 [3] Stanley G Burns and Paul R Bond, Principles of Electronic Circuits, International Thomson publishing, 2007 [4]Richard C Jaegar and Travis N Blalock, Micro electronic circuit design, Third Edition Errata, 2008 [5] www.palowireless.com [6]www.electro-tech-online.com [7] www.scribd.com
Page 35

A.I.T

Stress Meter

[8] www.rapidonline.com [9]www.freshersworld.com [10] www.electronicsforu.com

Page 36