SBIR-STTR Award

We have selected three technologies for the remote monitoring of bio-behavioral events. Camera based measures of gaze, including eye and head movements, pupil diameter, vergence, and blink parameters; Laser Doppler Vibrometry (LDV) based measures of cardiovascular and muscle activity; and behavioral measures including movements of body parts as well as keyboard operations will be utilized. Our collaborator, J.W. Rohrbaugh, has been instrumental in the development of the application of LDV technology for these measurements. We, as well as others, have demonstrated the utility of gaze control measures for indexing aspects of loss of alertness and performance lapses. There is a reasonable literature attesting to the utility of cardiovascular and muscle activity in this regard. We propose to continue our development of software to reliably abstract relevant measures. Procedures for developing software appropriate for the on-line monitoring of specific measures and combination of measures will be developed for implementation in the phase II effort. Since little work has been done on utilizing fine head movements as reflectors of attentional demands, we propose a pilot investigation to evaluate this measure