Sensing Stress Through Play: A Multimodal Pilot with Wearable Insights

Abstract

This work-in-progress (WiP) paper presents an interdisciplinary study that examines stress and well-being through a novel integration of wearable sensing and play-based reflection. Building on the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G), the project adapts the protocol into a participatory workshop using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP), enabling the integration of physiological signals, self-reports, and qualitative narratives. A pilot workshop has been conducted to assess the feasibility of this hybrid approach in a group setting. Preliminary findings suggest high participant engagement and indicate that combining physiological monitoring with reflective meaning-making can support richer interpretations of stress as both a psychophysiological and socially constructed experience. Meanwhile, the pilot highlights critical technical challenges associated with wearable-based data collection in real-world environments. These include trade-offs between battery life and high-frequency data acquisition, storage constraints during continuous sensing, signal loss and instability due to movement, and variability in sensing capabilities across devices. In addition, synchronization across multimodal data streams remains a key limitation for capturing temporally aligned stress responses. These early insights inform ongoing refinement of the study design, particularly in optimizing data collection protocols and improving system reliability. The work contributes to the development of human-centered, context-aware stress sensing approaches that bridge controlled experimental paradigms with real-world applications.