EMOZN
Wearable sensing for human performance.
Researching passive physiological signals with CRITTER, a wearable in development.
The Idea
Can physiological signals become useful information?
The body produces signals that are hard to observe without instruments, such as changes in heart rate, skin conductance, and skin temperature.
Emozn is researching whether a body-worn device can collect these signals passively and help estimate changes in physiological state, such as workload or stress response.
The goal is not simply to build another device.
The goal is to explore how wearable sensing might support human performance and human-machine teaming.
The Vision
Technology should support the people using it.
Emozn is developing CRITTER as a research platform for exploring the relationship between physiological state, workload, and human performance.
We are interested in what becomes possible when systems are designed around the people using them, rather than treating the human as a constant.
We believe physiological signals may carry useful information about workload and readiness. Our research is designed to find out.
What We Are Building
A wearable research platform.
CRITTER is a body-worn research platform in development. It is being designed to passively collect physiological signals, including heart rate, skin conductance, and skin temperature, for research into workload, stress response, and readiness.
The system architecture is defined. The prototype is in development, and there are no validated results yet.
Our approach is simple:
Research first. Claims only when the evidence supports them.
The Technology
Passive sensing, careful questions.
Our approach combines hardware, sensing, firmware, and software to investigate physiological signals associated with workload and stress response.
We are particularly interested in whether subtle changes in these signals can be turned into useful, interpretable information about a person's physiological state.
If the research supports it, possible uses could range from personal performance awareness to human-machine teaming, where systems account for the state of the people working with them.
The Human Element
It starts with a person.
Technology is only useful when it works for the person wearing it.
Emozn is interested in the conditions that shape how people perform. The conditions under study include workload, stress response, fatigue, and focus.
The technology is the tool. The human is the point.
About
About Emozn
At Emozn, we're developing CRITTER, a wearable research platform for exploring passive physiological sensing. We're a one-person hardware startup, led by Paul Cary, based in Washington State. Our aim is to investigate how body-worn sensing might support human performance and human-machine teaming.
Why CRITTER? We are researching whether signals such as heart rate, skin conductance, and skin temperature, collected passively by a body-worn device, can help estimate changes in physiological state, such as workload or stress response. CRITTER's architecture is defined, and the prototype is in development.
What we're doing
- Hardware. Exploring embedded sensor integration and low-power design for an ESP32-based prototype.
- Software. Developing custom firmware, with local, cloud-free processing as a design goal.
- Community. Transparent weekly build videos.
Our intention is to make CRITTER an open-source platform, so others can examine, learn from, and build on the work.
Emotion is power.
We're researching how technology might pay closer attention to the physiological signals behind human performance.
Follow the build.
Emozn is an early-stage hardware startup researching wearable sensing, physiological signals, and human performance.
Follow along with weekly build videos as the CRITTER prototype is developed in the open.