DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11523283
title: MONITOR Shimmer Dataset: Dataset of Physiological Parameters for Monitoring Stress in Garments Workers using Shimmer Sensors

description: MONITOR: A Data-driven Intelligent MONITORring System to Improve Quality of Working Life

The project, MONITOR, aims to establish mobility of bilateral collaboration between Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Bangladesh, and Mälardalen University (MDH), Sweden in specific research and education domains of Science and Technology at an institutional level. MDH has been leading several projects to develop tools to classify physiological data for individualized classification of physiological sensor readings to monitor stress, fatigue, and mental load at work and home environments. The project was funded by Stiftelsen för internationalisering av högre utbildning och forskning (STINT) under the Grant Agreement No. 202100-2916.

This project has unfolded many benefits for both the partnering universities. It gave access to a wide variety of data regarding mental health-related parameters to the researchers. Given the data collection was done in Bangladesh, it was challenging for the researchers to extract correct and accurate data under harsh/unsafe conditions. This trained the researchers to collect data under real complex conditions. In this project, MDH provided resources and knowledge to update the already developed AI algorithms to support Garment workers’ mental health monitoring. IUT provided expert human resources to develop a sensor-setting framework and assisted in collecting and analyzing the data.

Northern Tosrifa Group (NTG): A LEED-certified garment factory in Bangladesh, provided the test environment and subjects to collect and validate the system. The group has 5 companies under its operation and all the companies manufacture and export their products to markets in North America and Europe. For the project MONITOR, Fashion Asia Limited (FAL) (one of the 5 companies under NTG) provided the necessary manpower and data collection environment for the project. 

About the Dataset

As part of the MONITOR project, 27 subjects (29.17% Male, 83.33% Female, Age Group: 18-40 years) were recruited with written consent to collect stress-related physiological parameters. However, data from 24 subjects (29.17% Male, 70.83% Female, Age Group: 18-40 years) were considered due to inconsistencies in the data from 3 subjects owing to measurement inconsistencies, and device and/or human errors. Shimmer sensors were used for measuring the following physiological parameters-



Heart Rate Ear(BPM): The heart rate of the subject (measured in Beats per Minute) was recorded using the embedded heart rate sensor in the Shimmer module, wearable on the ear lobe.

Galvanic Skin Response (GSR): The Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), which measures the skin’s electrical conductivity in response to sweat gland activity in the fingers and palms, was measured using the embedded GSR Sensor in the Shimmer module.


The dataset contains the timestamped values (as elapsed time, in the format '%MM:%SS') of all the parameters above.

Data were collected in the following three phases-



Baseline Values: Values recorded under stress-free conditions (at the beginning of the working shift of a garment worker). Example filename: C01_SF_base.csv.

After-Lunch Values: Values recorded after the lunch break. Example filename: C10_SM_after_lunch.csv.

Stress-Induced Values: Values recorded while inducing stress using various stress-inducing questionnaires available in the literature. Example filename: C10_SM_stress_induced.csv.


Files were organized in a way such that each subject had a directory. In each directory, files were named as '<subject_id>_<device_tag><gender_tag>_<category>.csv'. For example:



Base data of a Female subject C01 recorded using a Shimmer sensor will have the name: C01_SF_base.csv

After-Lunch data of a Male subject C10 recorded using a Shimmer sensor will have the name: C10_SM_after_lunch.csv


N.B. : As part of the MONITOR project, another dataset titled, "MONITOR PhysiCube Dataset: Dataset of Physiological Parameters for Monitoring Stress in Garments Workers using PhysiCube Sensors", was simultaneously developed using an in-house sensor device, named PhysiCube, to measure the physiological data of the same subjects.