Biosensor System for Real-time Detection of Operational Fatigue and Cognitive Overload

Cognitive overload, fatigue, stress, and injury or illness can degrade operational readiness. Early detection of such conditions could provide an opportunity to implement countermeasures, improving effectiveness and minimizing performance errors. We have developed component technologies that are prerequisite to the capacity to automatically sense cognitive overload and/or operational fatigue, and have begun to demonstrate such tools in individuals engaged in console-based activities roughly analogous to those common in C2ISR environments. The technologies include wearable physiological data acquisition hardware that integrates quick-application headsets with wireless amplifiers and disposable sensors for measuring signals of brain function, eye-movements, and heart activity. They also include powerful signal processing algorithms capable of extracting cognitive load- and fatigue-sensitive neurocognitive signals in near real-time while minimizing artifactual contaminants. Here we propose to extend and integrate these advances to create an automated neurocognitive assessment system for C2ISR operations. In Phase I we will determine feasibility by analyzing existing neurophysiological data to identify optimal methods for making such measurements quickly and reliably in Air Force operational contexts. These methods will be tested and validated in a small experiment in which cognitive workload and state-of-alertness are varied. An integrated prototype system would be implemented and field tested in Phase II.