Abstract:  Emotion is a multifaceted phenomenon that plays a critical role in enhancing one’s quality of life by influencing motivation, perception, cognition, creativity, empathy, education, and decision-making. Additionally, negative emotions such as anger, shame, and anxiety are frequently triggered by stress, and the term destructive and threatening is used to indicate a connection between them. As a result, research into emotion recognition remains a critical issue at the moment. This study enrolled fifteen male university students. The heart rate was determined using a fingertip photoplethysmograph (PPG). The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) was used in this study to facilitate emotion changes. We used the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) to evaluate the subject’s emotions during the psychological assessment. As a pre-processing method, the FIR Band Pass Filter was established, and a single parameter called Heart rate change (HRC) was extracted from a PPG recording. Rather than employing complex classification techniques, we used binary classifiers such as logistic regression, Naïve Bayes, and Support Vector Machine (SVM) to distinguish between negative and positive emotions. We discovered that Naïve Bayes could provide greater than 50% accuracy and Area Under Curve (AUC) compared to the others using data from 30%, 40%, and 50% test sizes, respectively, particularly happiness (positive emotion) and anger (negative emotion). We concluded that the HRC as a single parameter could be considered the fundamental emotion classifier, though further research is necessary.

Keywords: Emotions; Binary Classifier; SAM; Photoplethysmograph