ABSTRACT
In recent years, telework has enormously increased because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some people believe that teleworkers can concentrate the same as in-person office work, while others do not. Previous studies showed that the work environment necessary for concentration tends to differ depending on the worker's individual attributes. The goal of this study is to propose an Ambient Intelligence (AMI) telework system suited for each individual to enhance concentration. In this paper, we used two videos with different levels of diligence on a task to investigate what kind of environment makes it easier to concentrate, depending on the degree of neuroticism. Concentration was estimated using the auditory steady-state response (ASSR), which is an oscillatory brain signal elicited by repetitive auditory stimulation and used as a hearing test for infants and children. The changes in the power spectral density of the ASSR with concentration were increased by comparing EEG at rest and during concentration. The effect of the two types of videos on concentration was investigated by evaluating the relationship between neuroticism scores and the power spectral density of the ASSR. The results showed that there was a significant difference in concentration influenced by the two types of videos between the high and low neuroticism score groups. In addition, a negative correlation was found between the neuroticism score and the concentration influenced by the two types of videos. We found that people with lower neuroticism tended to easy to concentrate on their work after seeing someone working hard whereas people with higher neuroticism tended to easy to concentrate on their work after seeing someone working lazily. The experimental results suggest the possibility of constructing an AMI system suited to each individual that enhances concentration. © 2023 IEEE.