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Overview

Optical Computer Recognition of Stress, Affect and Fatigue During Performance in Spaceflight

Principal Investigator:
David F. Dinges, Ph.D.

Organization:
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Space exploration is a dangerous endeavor, and astronauts must be at their best when performing their duties during a mission. In addition to the risks and heavy workloads, astronauts must contend with stressors such as prolonged isolation and confinement, which can diminish the performance of crew members.

The project led by Dr. David Dinges is developing an optical computer-based recognition system that reads facial displays and identifies when astronauts are experiencing stress, emotion and fatigue at levels that compromise performance in space. The system capabilities will be tested in spaceflight-like situations.

NASA Taskbook Entry

Technical Summary

Astronauts must maintain high-level performance while experiencing demanding workload and work schedules, extreme environmental risks, and psychosocial stressors in space (e.g., isolation, confinement). Stress, negative emotions and fatigue can jeopardize their cognitive performance and neurobehavioral status. This research project is developing and validating an objective, unobtrusive, computational model-based tracker of the human face that reliably identifies when astronauts are experiencing stress, emotion and fatigue at levels that compromise performance in space. This optical computer recognition (OCR) system will provide feedback to astronauts for autonomous selection of countermeasures for stress, depression and fatigue. The project is being accomplished through collaborative efforts of Dr. David Dinges (Unit for Experimental Psychiatry) at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Dr. Dimities Metaxas (Computational Biomedicine Imaging and Modeling Center) at Rutgers University.

Specific Aims

1. Create an OCR system capable of monitoring facial displays of specific emotions (i.e. angry, happy and sad).

2. Improve our current OCR system’s ability to detect facial expressions of high versus low performance-induced stress.

3. Develop OCR algorithms to identify fatigue due to sleep loss, based on slow eyelid closures (PERCLOS).

4. Test the technical feasibility of data acquisition and reliability of the advanced OCR system in spaceflight analogs that contain neurobehavioral stressors relevant to spaceflight (e.g., NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations).

The project has primary relevance to strategic goals of the NSBRI Neurobehavioral and Psychosocial Factors Team. Two major laboratory experiments for OCR development and validation are under way. The project is 75 percent complete. To date, half of the total number of subjects required to complete the two experiments have been studied.

Earth Applications

The study focuses on the ability of an unobtrusive, automated optical technology to detect psychological stress, emotion and fatigue during operational performance. The knowledge gained has the potential to identify an objective, unobtrusive, automated method for the recognition, monitoring and management of the risks of neurobehavioral dysfunction in affect and alertness in spaceflight and in many Earth-based safety-sensitive occupations, such as transportation workers (e.g., truck drivers, train conductors, airline pilots); operators in safety-sensitive industries (e.g., power plant control rooms); and military personnel.

 

This project's funding ended in 2012