DARPA's Augmented Cognition Program-tomorrow's human computer interaction from vision to reality: building cognitively aware computational systems

The Augmented Cognition (AugCog) program will extend, by an order-of-magnitude or more, the information management capacity of the "human-computer" combination by developing and demonstrating enhancements to human cognitive ability in diverse and stressful operational environments. Specifically, this program will develop the technologies needed to measure and track a subject's cognitive state in real-time. These measurements will then be used to augment the user's environment, and tailor that environment to a particular user's state. The technologies under development in AugCog have the potential to enhance operational capability, support reduction in the numbers of persons required to perform current functions, and improve human performance in cognitively challenging environments. In FY 2002, the AugCog program is developing robust, noninvasive, real-time, cognitive state detection technology for measuring the cognitive processing state of the user. In FY 2003, AugCog will be developing and testing integrated multi-sensor interface technologies that will permit human state manipulation. These efforts represent a new paradigm for human-computational systems interfaces.