A system for augmenting training by Monitoring, Extracting, and Decoding Indicators of Cognitive load (MEDIC)

USmilitary medical personnel are deployed to a variety of operationalenvironments wheretheir success savinglives depends on their ability to act quickly and effectively, both as individuals and as teams. Currently, trainers must infercompetence by observation alone—a challenging task. Automatically sensingindicators ofcognitive workload can augment performance observations, offeringinsight into factors underlying performance. Charles River Analytics designed, developed, and demonstrated a system to augment training by Monitoring, Extracting, and DecodingIndicators of Cognitive Workload (MEDIC™). Building on that success,we propose a second PhaseIIeffort to further harden, commercialize, and transition MEDIC,enablingthe disambiguation of potential cognitive workload indicators from othercauses,such as physicalexertion. Thesecond PhaseII result will be: (1) ruggedized sensors resistant to sand,sun, and otherextremeenvironmental characteristics; (2)customized processingthatenables real-timesensing, processing, and expression ofcognitive workload; (3) advanced modelingto increase accuracy for assessed human states,especially when following an individual trainee across trainingenvironments; (4) intuitive display of information in real timeso trainerscan act on system information duringtraining and the after-action review; and (5) transition into DoD trainingenvironments (with Cubic) and commercial markets (with Biosignals PLUX).