Biosensors in urban research: how do participants respond to data visualization?

Wearable biosensors are becoming popular tools for urban scholars interested in the experience of urban atmospheres. Such devices capture physiological signals such as electrodermal activity, brain activity or heart rate, which can be used to understand individual physical, emotional and cognitive responses to the urban environment. For this reason, biosensors have been praised as tools that allow scholars to reduce the burden on research participants, while obtaining more precise data on the affectivity of urban space. However, ongoing biosensing studies show a different scenario. It has been noted that biosensing data is often ambiguous and thus must be contextualized with qualitative data through interviews or diaries. Despite the acknowledgement of the necessity of mixing biosensing techniques with qualitative methods, there is little exploration of how research participants understand and interpret biosensing data. However, such exploration is crucial to understand how biosensing can contribute toward participatory, inclusive and citizen-centric planning and design processes in the city. With this in mind, this paper presents the results of two biosensing study which have been conducted in Avenida da Igreja, Lisbon (Portugal) and Krakowskie Przedmieście, Warsaw (Poland) in which participants undertook individual walks wearing a Empatica E4 wristband, which measures electrodermal activity. During the walk, participants were encouraged to visualize their real-time data. After the individual walk, an interview with the elicitation of the biosensor data was conducted with each participant. The results of the study are focused on the participants’ interpretation of biosensing data.