ABSTRACT
Abstract The ultimate goal of the Augmented Cognition (AugCog) program is to improve the warfighter’s ability to process information while operating under stressful conditions of the battlefield. The mechanism for doing this is to monitor the combatant’s psychophysiological state in real time, determine cognitive state, and then influence the information flow so as to maintain or enhance performance. Papers in this session deal with the challenge of taking the biometric indicators of user cognitive states developed from laboratory studies and making them relevant to a user in an operational environment. The research completed to date and reported in this session represents incremental steps toward this objective. Two key questions to be asked for the dismounted warrior are “Can un-tethered wearable and rugged sensor systems be developed for military operations?” and “Are cognitive states of individuals measured in laboratory comparable to cognitive states of individuals moving about in operational environments?” The reliability and durability of sensors, signal-noise ratios, motion artifacts, and simplicity of operation are issues these investigators are pursuing to address the first question. The latter question calls for research on the expected differences in the psychophysiology of individuals in low mobility laboratory experiments to those of the physically more active tasks of missions in the field under stress. Thus, studies in the next phase of the program will have to investigate the more cognitively complicated processes of combat like activities. New classifications and measures of the cognitive dynamics will certainly be needed. Additional sensors may also be required to account for the operator’s context in terms of tactical movements and engagement with rapidly changing events. The context monitors will also have to be part of the wearable system that are, at the same time, tough-durable, easy to don and doff and relatively invisible to the operator. These are some of the critical issues that need to be considered for making AugCog operationally viable for a dismounted operator.
