AktivTalk: Digitizing the Talk Test for Voice-Based Exercise Intensity Self-Assessment and Exploring Automated Classification from Speech

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Islambouli, Rania, Geiger, Laura, Wurhofer, Daniela, Kumar, Devender, Sauerwein, Clemens, Smeddinck, Jan David
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Islambouli, Rania
Geiger, Laura
Wurhofer, Daniela
Kumar, Devender
Sauerwein, Clemens
Smeddinck, Jan David
author_facet Islambouli, Rania
Geiger, Laura
Wurhofer, Daniela
Kumar, Devender
Sauerwein, Clemens
Smeddinck, Jan David
contents Monitoring exercise intensity is critical for safe and effective physical activity, particularly for individuals with cardiovascular disease, where overexertion can pose serious risks. Although physiological measures such as heart rate are widely used for avoiding overexertion, they can be unreliable in certain cases, such as when affected by medication or when wearables are worn too loosely. We introduce AktivTalk, a mobile prototype that digitizes the clinically validated Talk Test to support voice-based, in-the-moment self-assessment of exertion. In a within-subject study with 20 participants, we collected exertion-labeled voice samples and found that AktivTalk was rated as highly usable and preferred over conductor-guided assessment. We further explored automated exertion classification from Talk Test speech. Using MFCC-based features with class balancing and cross-validation, a lightweight neural classifier achieved up to 90% accuracy for detecting high vs.non-high exertion from Talk Test recordings. This work highlights the potential of structured voice interactions for accessible exertion assessment and motivates future passive exertion monitoring from speech.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_20302
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle AktivTalk: Digitizing the Talk Test for Voice-Based Exercise Intensity Self-Assessment and Exploring Automated Classification from Speech
Islambouli, Rania
Geiger, Laura
Wurhofer, Daniela
Kumar, Devender
Sauerwein, Clemens
Smeddinck, Jan David
Human-Computer Interaction
Monitoring exercise intensity is critical for safe and effective physical activity, particularly for individuals with cardiovascular disease, where overexertion can pose serious risks. Although physiological measures such as heart rate are widely used for avoiding overexertion, they can be unreliable in certain cases, such as when affected by medication or when wearables are worn too loosely. We introduce AktivTalk, a mobile prototype that digitizes the clinically validated Talk Test to support voice-based, in-the-moment self-assessment of exertion. In a within-subject study with 20 participants, we collected exertion-labeled voice samples and found that AktivTalk was rated as highly usable and preferred over conductor-guided assessment. We further explored automated exertion classification from Talk Test speech. Using MFCC-based features with class balancing and cross-validation, a lightweight neural classifier achieved up to 90% accuracy for detecting high vs.non-high exertion from Talk Test recordings. This work highlights the potential of structured voice interactions for accessible exertion assessment and motivates future passive exertion monitoring from speech.
title AktivTalk: Digitizing the Talk Test for Voice-Based Exercise Intensity Self-Assessment and Exploring Automated Classification from Speech
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.20302