DREAMER v1.0.2
DREAMER: A Database for Emotion Recognition through EEG and ECG
Signals from Wireless Low-cost Off-the-Shelf Devices
Abstract
We present DREAMER, a multi-modal database consisting of electroencephalogram (EEG) and
electrocardiogram (ECG) signals recorded during affect elicitation by means of audio-visual stimuli.
Signals from 23 participants were recorded along with the participants’ self-assessment of their
affective state after each stimuli, in terms of valence, arousal, and dominance. All the signals were
captured using portable, wearable, wireless, low-cost and off-the-shelf equipment that has the
potential to allow the use of affective computing methods in everyday applications. The Emotiv EPOC
wireless EEG headset was used for EEG and the Shimmer2 ECG sensor for ECG.
Classification results for valence, arousal and dominance of the proposed database are comparable to
the ones achieved for other databases that use non-portable, expensive, medical grade devices.
The proposed database is made publicly available in order to allow researchers to achieve a more
thorough evaluation of the suitability of these capturing devices for affect recognition applications.
If you use the DREAMER database please cite:
S. Katsigiannis, N. Ramzan, “DREAMER: A Database for Emotion Recognition Through EEG and ECG
Signals from Wireless Low-cost Off-the-Shelf Devices,” IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health
Informatics, 2017. In press. doi: 10.1109/JBHI.2017.2688239
Database summary
The DREAMER database contains the participant ratings and physiological recordings of an experiment
where 23 volunteers watched 18 film clips selected and evaluated by Gabert-Quillen et al. [1]. EEG
and ECG signals were recorded and each participant rated their emotion by reporting the felt arousal,
valence and dominance on five point scales. For more details, please refer to [2].
Database file
The DREAMER database consists of the “DREAMER.mat” file in Matlab format. Loading this file loads
a variable named “DREAMER” in the workspace. The “DREAMER” variable is structured as follows:
DREAMER =
struct with fields:
Data: {1×23 cell}
EEG_SamplingRate: 128
ECG_SamplingRate: 256
EEG_Electrodes: {'AF3' 'F7' 'F3' 'FC5' 'T7' 'P7' 'O1' 'O2' 'P8' 'T8' 'FC6' 'F4' 'F8' 'AF4'}
noOfSubjects: 23
noOfVideoSequences: 18
Disclaimer: 'While every care has been taken…'
Provider: 'University of the West of Scotland'
Version: '1.0.2'
Acknowledgement: 'The authors would like to thank…'
