Continue reading »]]> One of the least intrusive methods for assessing cognitive load is measuring pupil diameter change using remote eye tracking. Because of the effect of task evoked pupillary response (TEPR), the pupil will dilate when a person is faced with a challenging cognitive task. But the pupil’s  diameter will also change due to change in lighting conditions (pupillary light reflex).

In related research it was shown that by predicting the pupil reaction due to illumination, the cognitive load can be estimated.

Since the quality of cognitive load estimation directly depends on the quality of  the pupil reaction prediction due to illumination, in recent work prediction algorithm was improved by:

• filtering high frequency sensor noise;
• eliminating gaze lag;
• modeling pupil dilation and contraction transfer functions for each subject individually (rather than finding universal transfer function);

The result of the improved estimation algorithm can be seen in Figures 1. and 2. When no cognitive task is introduced to subject, and pupil changes only due to changes in scene illumination, it can be seen (Figure 1) that prediction correlates to the signal obtained by eye tracker. In comparison to the prediction output, it can be seen (Figure 2) that pupil significantly dilates after the moment of imposed cognitive task.

Figure 2. Measured data and prediction with cognitive task

Comparison between estimated TEPR and TEPR measured in experiment where subjects were exposed only to cognitive task, is shown in Figure 3. The correlation coefficient for these two signals is 78% can be considered to be high match.

As pupil diameter based cognitive load estimation relies on good prediction of the pupil reaction due to illumination conditions, this improved prediction algorithm makes real-time estimation (Figure 2) successful.

Continue reading »]]> Spring has come to Budapest and things continue to get more beautiful!

A semester in Budapest sure keeps you busy.  It’s been hard to make time for a blog.  The four of us here are having a truly amazing time in Europe!

We are finding out that it is rewarding to be here and travel everywhere, but it isn’t any less difficult when trying to balance all the traveling with academia.  It’s very fast paced here and a lot more is thrown at the students at once because the lectures are two hour blocks twice a week for each class.  It’s hard to believe the semester is about 3 quarters over.  The four of us have been to at least 8 different countries total.  It started with Vienna, Austria then Bratislava, Slovakia.  After that the four New Hampshirites split to two groups and two went to Prague, Czech Republic with the student group the Erasmus Student Network who organized the trip, while the others visited friends in Krakow, Poland.  Most recently, the two who didn’t go to Prague with the ESN went to Prague over Easter weekend which was a long weekend for us, while one went to England to visit family and I went to Italy, met a friend of mine studying abroad there, and with them went to Switzerland!

Hopefully that wasn’t so confusing… Needless to say we’ve wasted no time getting to explore Europe and represent the U.S. and UNH abroad.  Another place we were able to visit was Serbia and one of the best shots of the group was taken there and is below.  We are settling down from traveling for the time being and doing some studying for some upcoming exams.  Photos will be on Flickr shortly.

__Sam Batton

Outside the Belgrade fortress in Belgrade, Serbia

Continue reading »]]> I presented a poster at this year’s Eye Tracking Research and Applications conference (ETRA2012) with the title: Exploring the Effects of Visual Cognitive Load and Illumination on Pupil Diameter in Driving Simulators. In the adjoining short paper Andrew and I explored how visual cognitive load and illumination affect the driver’s pupil and if the effects of these two stimuli could be decoupled. As it turns out we were able to do this with statistical proof. Click on the image below to see a larger version of the poster. A video showing the three performed tasks can be viewed here.

The poster invited interesting conversations about assessing cognitive load in driving simulators and cars. On one hand the research community is very interested in using a host of methods to estimate this workload, but on the other hand the automotive industry is looking to implement a very reliable indicator of driver overload.

Visiting this conference is always a pleasant experience, as it is the leading showcase of eye tracking research in the world. These visits always spark new ideas which I can’t wait to test when I go back to the lab.

Oszkar

Continue reading »]]> In our last demo we showed the simplicity of scrolling through pre-generated time series data on the Microsoft Surface. We have now implemented real data with the same functionality. The new software, seen below, demonstrates basic data visualization and manipulation of Buoy data collected throughout the Great Bay area.

The graphing is created using Microsoft Excel. The Excel API was simple to use but lacks some functionality of the Excel program. Other graphing API’s may be more beneficial to use in the future.

It has been a very interesting, educational, experience developing for the Microsoft Surface. I believe I have a come long way since I started in the Fall and I cannot wait to see what else comes of this project!

Thanks for reading!

~Nick Sjostrom

Continue reading »]]> This year’s Eye Tracking Research and Applications conference is held in picturesque Santa Barbara, California. This gathering is the premier venue for cutting-edge eye tracking research in the world. The keynote speech was given by Andrew Campbell of Dartmouth College. He is interested in figuring out how smartphones can be used to infere about people’s behavior, surroundings and life patterns. He is also looking at how these devices could be used to make driving safer.

The conference brought a number of emerging eye tracking companies. For example, Eyetracking Inc. has a very interesting software product for workload estimation based on the index of cognitive activity (ICA). Another company is Ergoneers GmbH, which has a lightweight head-mounted eye tracker that can be integrated with Vicon‘s motion capturing system. Here I’m being phot-bombed by one of the ergoneers:

Tomorrow I will present a poster based on our short paper accepted at ETRA. Stay tuned for more about this exciting event.

Continue reading »]]> Now that some basic autonomous flight capabilities are implemented with my quadrotor software, I am now working on implementing photo mapping functionality so that the user can see pictures from the entire flight in a simple, attractive, and easy-to-use manner.

This is one of the first renditions of my software’s In-Flight Mapping system where it will be able to take pictures in-flight and display them for the user such that they can manipulate them to their liking as well as display them in a coordinated fashion according to the flight pattern the drone was set to.

Here is a short video showing the basic functionality thus far which is easily expandable to meet my future needs. Excuse the quality, I will try to upload a better one once my colleagues are able to help me record a better video (it requires more than 2 hands):

AR-Drone In-Flight Photo Mappng

Continue reading »]]> Greetings everyone from Budapest!

Where to begin!?!

I never dreamed that I would be standing on a hill halfway around the world overlooking a foreign land which I had never heard about outside of the past world empires we studied in middle school, while at the same time making progress toward a degree in engineering often regarded as the most difficult on campus.  I have been in Budapest now for a little over a month, but it seems like it has been longer than that because it felt like a month long journey after only the first week.

Already I have seen so much of Budapest, made new friends,  and made some unforgettable trips to Vienna, Austria and Bratislava, Slovakia.  Next week we have a long weekend and I will be traveling to Prague.

I have always loved traveling since I grew up doing it because of the distance I lived from my grandparents and because I spent every weekend in the summer making a three hour family car trip to a campground in Maine.  I have been fortunate enough to be able to travel many places including to China thanks to the outstanding music program of my high school and the wonderful experience I had in Boy Scouts, but to live independently in a foreign place I have never been to before was a big step for me.  It has been very eye opening and rewarding.  I would definitely recommend to people to take this opportunity for an unforgettable experience.  Things are still heating up here but so many cool things have already happened.  Pictures and more posts will come soon.

-Sam

Continue reading »]]> To demonstrate the potential for displaying data over time, I created a sample application on top of the InfoStrat.VE(virtual Earth). This sample program allows the user to scroll through MatLab generated data over a time frame of nine years.

This type of visual data display could make analyzing time series information more interesting and fun. Basically any type of geospatial data could be used. In the future, this demonstration will use real data that includes: Buoy, Weather and Tide data sets. These real data sets will also scroll through time within a time period of hours instead of years.

~Nick Sjostrom

Continue reading »]]> Over the past few weeks I have been finishing up my senior project work here at Project54. The goal of this project is to have a wireless interface that is capable of controlling police cruiser devices from the outside of the car. Up to this point I have successfully implemented both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections between a handheld Motorola PDA and an Arduino micro-controller. Recently I have improved these connections and have been able to actually send commands to devices in the cruiser, ultimately allowing a user to wirelessly control these devices from his or her PDA. As of now the application allows for control of the light bar and siren on a demo car. The following photos and a video show the user implementing this connection for control of police cruiser lights and siren. Future work will be focused on making the interface hands free with voice recognition on the PDA.

The Arduino Wireless server inside the demo Police Cruiser

The Login Screen for the Wireless Interface Application

The Control Screen for the Wireless Interface Application

Using the Wireless Interface Application to control the front and rear strobes on the demo Police Cruiser

Wireless Control of the Light Bar on a demo Police Cruiser with a Motorola PDA

Continue reading »]]> I am Ivan Razumenić, an Electrical Engineering senior exchange student from Serbia. After the eventful first semester at UNH and ECE department, and halfway through the exchange program, I would like to share my experience and hopefully motivate some of you for study abroad programs.

I will briefly talk about academic, student life, and cultural aspects of the exchange program that affected me. For a more detailed view I have on benefits of living in country other than your own, please take a look at a story called String theory on my personal blog.

After gaining mostly theoretical knowledge at the University of Belgrade (Serbia) I compensated the lack of practical work by taking several open lab courses in the previous semester. Even though I already got specialized in Control Systems and Signal Processing, it was good to go back to amplifiers, filters, integrated circuits, and see all the theory being applied. Icing on the cake was an ECE 775 final project I did. The goal was to make a communication link between a base station and a toy train through the tracks. The same link is used to power supply the train. If you are interested, you can see a project presentation on the following page.

Probably the most important part of my work at UNH is my internship at Project54. Being involved in a research on a graduate level, and the experience I have in this lab will have a big impact on my future academic goals. The goal of the research is to estimate the driver’s cognitive load by analyzing the size of his/her pupil. The topic and the methods used are covered by my expertize (not implicating I am an expert ) and I enjoy working on this project. Details could be found on the following page.

What make the academic work I talked about difficult are all the extracurricular activities available to a student at UNH. The concept of campus is foreign in most of the Europe, and the concentration of opportunities is something that fascinated me from the first day I came to US. As I come from the sport nation (the same day I am writing this Serbian water polo team, handball team and tennis player Novak Đoković all qualified to the finals on the tournaments they compete at) it is not strange I am competitive in many sports. Among other things, I started playing soccer again, I become a part of the UNH archery team and I discovered the excitement of surfing!

And I must say, what a big country you have! I took a word break very seriously and I traveled across U.S. during winter break. Even though U.S. population is mixed, the the lack of geographical diversity surprised me. The trip made me realize how different from each other European countries are.

Exchange program usually works both ways, but unless you speak Serbian you could not study in Serbia [for now]. As compensation, I would like to present to you Petnica Science Center. It is the largest research center for high school students in Europe, but every summer a two-weeks high quality international seminar for college students happens. I sincerely recommend you to apply for the Petnica International program, and I would be happy to welcome you in Serbia.

Being in U.S. and UNH is, in many aspects, very rich experience for me and I am happy to be here for one more semester. See you somewhere in the class.