Devices to measure human skin conductance are used in higly versatile fields nowadays – from science and health care to entertainment industry. Despite their universal use their measurement accuracy is controlled very seldom. Nowadays there is no device on the market that enables the testing of skin conductance measuring devices using generated SC signals.
The thesis comprises the planning, the making and the testing of a prototype of such a simulator. In general a simulator is a device meant for imitating the physical processes. It is mostly useful for testing the correct and accurate functioning of the measuring device. The simulator constructed and produced within this thesis, simulates the changing of skin conductance and consequently enables the static and the dynamic evaluation of the skin conductance measuring device, which then allow setting the errors within the measuring device.
The thesis first focuses on the skin structure, its functions, the basics of measuring its electro-dermal activity and the basic principles of skin conductance measures. Then the necessary functions needed in the appliance for testing the skin conductance measuring device are defined. The suitable element had to be chosen to enable the changing of resistance in the desired resistance scale. Several possibilities were tested to see how to provide a variable resistance and select the most appropriate solution. The optocoupler turned out to be the best option. To provide the generating of SC signals, which present the changing of the skin conductance, more easily, the Arduino Due microcontroller board was used. It was followed by designing the structure, studying how to carry it out and making the simulator prototype. Its functioning had to be tested using a commercial skin conductance measuring device and checking its accuracy. The last part of the thesis provides the results of the testing, suggestions for the improvements on the simulator and a short summary of the entire thesis.
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