Based on previous research showing the usefulness of spatial statistics in detecting randomness in the distribution of eye fixations, this study investigated the ocular behavior of professional pilots engaged in a simulated flight. The distribution of eye fixations was used as an indirect index of mental workload: Eye movements were recorded during the different phases (departure to landing) of a simulated flight and were analyzed using spatial statistics algorithms. Results showed sensitivity of spatial dispersion indices to variations in mental workload: higher during departure and landing, lower during climb and descend, and the lowest during the cruise phase. This finding provides additional evidence of the utility of fixations distribution as a real-time measure of mental workload and, consequently, as a trigger for adaptive automation.

No abstract

This paper describes an extremely low-cost smart camera with imaging sensor, freely programmable DSP, power control and wired/wireless networking capabilities. The power consumption reaches from 3mW to 240mW depending on load and transmission rates and the BOM for a single device is now 25 euros. We were able to reduce both the power consumption and price by going to minimal resolution imagers (30x30 pixels) allowing us to reduce the performance demands on the DSP engine. The lower resolution, although with processing frame rates of up to 80fps, still allows many common applications for visual sensors such as object detection, fall detection, motion estimation and face detection. In addition, the resolution is low enough to guarantee privacy.

No abstract

Based on previous research showing the usefulness of spatial statistics in detecting randomness in the distribution of eye fixations, this study investigated the ocular behavior of professional pilots engaged in a simulated flight. The distribution of eye fixations is here used an index of mental workload. Eye movements were recorded during the different phases (departure to landing) of a simulated flight, and were analyzed using spatial statistics algorithms. Results showed sensitivity of spatial dispersion indices to variations in mental workload: higher during departure and landing, lower during the other phases. This result provides additional evidence of the utility of fixations distribution as a real-time measure of mental workload and, consequently, as a trigger for adaptive automation.