UNOBTRUSIVE REAL-TIME MONITORING OF PILOT MENTAL STATUS: DEVELOPMENT OF A TEST-BED SYSTEM

THE REAL-TIME DETERMINATION OF PILOT MENTAL STATUS IS A CRITICAL FEATURE OF THE WORKLOAD MONITORING AND MINDWARE SUBSYSTEMS THAT HAVE BEEN ENVISIONED FOR FUTURE FIGHTER AIRCRAFT, INCLUDING THE VIRTUALWORLD SUPER-COCKPIT. RECENT LABORATORY AND SIMULATOR STUDIES, SOME CONDUCTED BY ARD, HAVE SUGGESTED THE VALUE OF VARIOUS BEHAVIORAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL INDICES FOR REFLECTING OPERATIONALLY RELEVANT MENTAL STATES. MOREOVER, THESE INDICES CAN BE OBTAINED UNOBTRUSIVELY WITHOUT BURDENING THE PILOT WITH CONTRIVED SECONDARY TASKS OR SUBJECTIVE RATINGS. THE PROPOSED EFFORT INVOLVES THE DEVELOPMENT OF REAL-TIME DATA PROCESSING ALGORITHMS FOR CHARACTERIZING MEASURES OF HEART-RATE VARIABILITY, EYE BLINKS, AND SINGLE-TRIAL, SCALP-RECORDED EVENTRELATED POTENTIALS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A LABORATORY-BASED TEST-BED FOR IMPLEMENTING THESE ALGORITHMS USING A DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING CONFIGURATION. DECISION RULES THAT ARE PREDICTIVE OR REFLECTIVE OF TASK-DRIVEN FLUCTUATIONS IN OPERATOR PERFORMANCE WILL BE CALCULATED, BASED ON THE DERIVED BEHAVIORAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL MEASURES, FROM DATA OBTAINED IN AN INITIAL "TRAINING" SESSION AND APPLIED TO CLASSIFY DATA COLLECTED FROM THE SAME SUBJECTS DURING A SUBSEQUENT "TEST" SESSION.