High Density Electric Vector Sensor Array for Non Contacting Measurement of EEG

"A breakthrough in free-space electric field sensing will be used as the basis of a hardware interface to brain neuropotentials. Free-space sensing has the ability to measure the electric potentials produced by the brain without contacting the head and sooffers the ultimate solution for long term monitoring of cognitive processes. Furthermore, detection of free-space potentials enables measurement of the electric field normal to the scalp, thereby providing a new channel of information, that should improvethe spatial resolution presently achieved by spline laplacian fits to surface electric potential data. In addition, the sensors have a sufficiently small size, low weight and low cost to be used in a future wearable system that integrates the cognitivestate of an operator into a larger system.The Phase I program will investigate realizing these important capabilities in a practical high density sensor array for real time detection of cognitive state. A side by side comparison will be made between a set of the new sensors and a 64 element arrayof conventional electrodes. In Phase II, a dense array of the new free-space sensors will be constructed, and its ability to locate functional domains of cognitive processing will be studied. If successful, the proposed system will provide a critical advance in our ability to monitor and spatially resolve the electrical activity of the brain. The system would be an enabling technology for many p