Sensor-Based Monitoring and Intervention for Gravi

Gravity-induced loss of consciousness (GLOC) and almost loss of consciousness (ALOC) continue to be significant problems in high-speed flight, often causing loss of aircraft and aircrew personnel. Archinoetics, LLC (Archinoetics) and Athena ISG/GTXtreme, Inc. (Athena) completed separate SBIR Phase I efforts for this topic area. Athena focused on EEG sensing and Archinoetics on NIRS. Phase I results indicated that the potential of the combined capability of these two sensor modalities would be beneficial to the prediction and detection of ALOC and GLOC as well as potential dual-use commercial applications. Consequently, Archinoetics and Athena have formed a team to continue work for the Phase II effort. The contractor team will develop a combined EEG and NIRS sensor capable of being integrated into a flight helmet. Additionally, hardware will be designed and built that will be capable of conditioning the sensor outputs and processing them to produce a prediction and detection of ALOC and GLOC. The system must be as self contained as practical to minimize aircrew and aircraft modifications for ease of technology integration for demonstration, test and evaluation. The system will support up to two sensors packages simultaneously and will be demonstrated in a human centrifuge.