DEVELOPMENT OF A NON-INTRUSIVE COGNITIVE WORKLOAD MEASUREMENT DEVICE

THE ACCELERATING TEMPO OF MILITARY OPERATIONS INCREASES THE TASK DEMANDS AND WORK RELATED STRESSES IMPOSED ON HUMAN OPERATORS. AS NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DESIGNS ARE INCORPORATED INTO MILITARY SYSTEMS, A METRIC IS REQUIRED TO ENSURE THAT HUMAN COGNITIVE WORKLOAD LIMITS ARE NOT EXCEEDED. SOME PROGRESS IN THIS ENDEAVOR HAS BEEN ACHIEVED IN USING AS OBJECTIVE WORKLOAD INDICATORS A VARIETY OF ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES, INCLUDING EEG AND NEURAL EVOKED POTENTIALS. HOWEVER, THESE OBJECTIVE TECHNIQUES TEND TO BE INTRUSIVE, RELATIVELY ARTIFICIAL, AND NON-PORTABLE. WE BELIEVE THERE ARE MORE READILY OBTAINABLE MEASURES THAT CAN SERVE AS IMPLE EXTERNAL INDICANTS OF WORKLOAD, AND WHICH CAN BE BUNDLED IN PORTABLE, VEST-POCKET SYSTEMS TO BE EMPLOYED IN APPLIED WORKLOAD ASSESSMENT. WE HAVE HAD SUCCESS IN LABORATORY RESEARCH RELATING EYE MOVEMENT CHARACTERISTICS (VELOCITY, ACCELERATION, ETC.) TO A TASK SCALED IN COGNITIVE WORKLOAD. IN PHASE I, WE PROPOSE TO DERIVE A TRANSFER FUNCTION BETWEEN THESE EYE MOVEMENT INDICANTS AND TASK DEMANDS BY USING A SET OF TASKS WHICH ARE INDEXED FOR LEVEL OF COGNITIVE WORKLOAD. FROM THESE RELATIONS, A PROTOTYPE OF A TRANSPORTABLE DEVICE IN WHICH EYE MOVEMENT DATA ARE COLLECTED AND AUTOMATICALLY SCORED WILL BE DEVELOPED FOR FIELD USAGE.