HRV-Based Recognition of Complex Emotions: Feature Identification and Emotion-Specific Indicator Selection

Background/Objectives: Complex emotions in daily life often arise as mixtures of basic emotions, but most emotion-recognition systems still target a small set of discrete states and rely on contact-based sensing. This study aimed (1) to examine whether four compound emotions-Positive Surprise, Negative Surprise, Positive Sadness, and Negative Sadness-defined by valence direction within basic emotion categories can be differentiated using heart rate variability (HRV), and (2) to evaluate the feasibility of a camera-based contactless system (Deep Health Vision System, DHVS) by comparing it with a reference chest-strap device (Polar H10). Methods: Ten healthy adults viewed video clips designed to induce the four complex emotions. HRV was recorded simultaneously using Polar H10 and a webcam-based rPPG implementation of DHVS. Two-minute baseline and during-stimulus segments were extracted, and change rates of standard HRV indices were computed. After each stimulus, participants reported Valence, Arousal, Dominance, and proportional basic-emotion composition. Statistical analyses examined within-condition HRV changes, associations between HRV and self-reports, differences across emotion/valence conditions, and concordance between DHVS and Polar H10. Results: Self-reports confirmed distinct affective profiles for the four compound emotions. Positive and Negative Surprise were associated with heart rate reduction, while Positive Sadness showed reduced total power; Negative Sadness yielded heterogeneous but nonsignificant HRV changes. Specific HRV indices demonstrated condition-dependent correlations with Valence, Arousal, and Dominance. LF/HF changes were more sensitive to emotion category (Surprise vs. Sadness), whereas total power changes were more sensitive to valence (positive vs. negative). DHVS partially reproduced Polar H10 HRV patterns, with clearer concordance under positive-valence conditions. Conclusions: HRV captures distinct autonomic signatures of complex emotions defined by valence direction and shows meaningful links with subjective affective evaluations. LF/HF and total power provide complementary information on emotion category and valence-related autonomic reactivity, supporting indicator-specific modeling strategies. DHVS shows preliminary feasibility as a contactless HRV sensing platform for complex emotion recognition, warranting further validation with larger samples and more robust rPPG processing.