Cognitive Health Impact and Physiological Sensors (CHIPS) Helmet, Phase II

Modern military aircraft are cognitively and physically taxing their human operators, presenting a critical safety risk. Sleep deprivation, long periods of intense attention, physical exertion, acute or chronic stress, strong and extended acceleration that can cause gravity-induced loss of consciousness, hypoxia, and other factors such as blasts or ballistic impacts can negatively impact mission performance and increase the risk of accidents. Although military aircraft have numerous sensors, their operators are not monitored, leaving a need for unobtrusive Operator State Monitoring (OSM) systems that can measure the physiological/cognitive state of aircrew.  To address this need, Quantum Applied Science & Research, Inc. (QUASAR) is integrating physiological and Ballistic Impact Detection (BID) sensors into a Cognitive Health, Impact, and Physiological Sensor (CHIPS) helmet. The CHIPS helmet is intended to measure the vital signs of pilots as well as their cognitive functional states.  In addition, the helmet will detect and measure pressure waves on the body that may result from ballistic or blast impacts. During Phase I, QUASAR developed and demonstrated a functional CHIPS prototype. In Phase II, QUASAR will advance the CHIPS system with additional sensors and software to provide interpretable outputs relating to physiological health and cognitive states.