This Article is From Jun 10, 2009

Now, measure stress on your mobile

Now, measure stress on your mobile

AFP image

Tokyo:

With recession plaguing Japan, a local university and a company have jointly developed a "thermometer for the mind" which will alert people on their own stress levels on their cellphones and personal computers.

Called the "Fish Bowl Index" of mental health, it alerts people to their own stress levels by representing their answers to a checklist of questions with visual imagery on their cellphones and personal computers.

Devised to help prevent suicides, the system uses images of red and black goldfish, a bowl and a cat to illustrate a person's mood.

For example, the red goldfish represents users themselves and gets more and more injured depending on the level of physical stress a user reports. The black goldfish becomes more and more aggressive depending on the level of stress the user reports in relationships with others.

The cat indicates social stress and tries to eat the goldfish if its levels rise while the bowl shows stress at home and cracks if stress levels increase.

If the system judges the user is experiencing mental health problems, it indicates where to go for consultations.

The mental health checker was developed as an early detection system two years ago by Tokai University for patients suffering from depression. Its partner the Tokyo-based Sakurai Co began selling the system mainly to corporate health insurance societies in February, Kyodo news agency reported.

"We are worried that the number of suicides may increase further as the severe economic situation is continuing," a Sakurai official said.

"We'd like people to use the system as a thermometer for the mind."

The number of suicides in Japan topped 30,000 for the 11th consecutive year in 2008 and the government has earmarked billions of yen in the fiscal 2009 supplementary budget to support measures by local governments to prevent suicides.

Several municipalities in the Tokyo metropolitan areas are now considering introducing the health check system, the report said.

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