Eyegaze and facial expression analysis - an experimental tool for research on human-centered and affective systems

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The equipment requested consists of a set of hardware and software which will allow for measurement and tracking of the eyegaze and facial expressions in real time and in a non-invasive manner. Further, the measurement and tracking are completed in a dynamic situation (e.g., moving vehicles and robots). The eye gaze and facial expressions help infer the human mental state (attention, workload, emotion) which will further affect our cognitive behavior. Therefore, this equipment can be used to support research in a multidisciplinary context, covering engineering, computer science, medicine, and education.     This equipment essentially provides an experimental base for theoretical study on quantification of the human mental state and its relationship with the human cognitive decision making ability and performance. In short term, this equipment will support several important research projects. One project is towards the understanding of the decision maker's emotion during a decision-making process, particularly in the case of disaster response management, as emotion considerably affects the human's decision making ability. The second project is to advance our understanding of driver's attention distraction, mental workload, emotion, and their relationship with the performance of the driver-vehicle system, which is related to traffic regulations and is significant to public safety. The third project is to understand the mental state of the human worker who assembles parts and works together with mobile robots, which can provide a scientific basis for determining task allocation between the human worker and the robot toward a more safe and error-free operation and workplace. The other projects are related to collaborative work, physical therapy, and visual perception of objects.     These studies have great significance to Canada in developing human-friendly, reliable and safe products. The long term significance also lies in the value created which is related to the safety and health of humans during their daily activities (e.g., driving).