Designing Novel Physiologic Monitor Displays for Combat Medics.

INTRODUCTION: Combat medics who are responsible for the care of injured warfighters face challenges from their reliance on medical alarms that exceed the noise levels recommended by the WHO. This is because the elevated noise levels in military facilities, particularly from vehicular units and weaponry, compromise the combat medics' effectiveness and attentiveness to medical alarms. We previously designed a graphical ("configural") display to communicate patients' vital signs and found that when the configural display and traditional numerical display were concurrently presented to participants, it produced the fastest identification of patient vital signs and triggered the fewest number of alarms. This study used eye tracking to assess how participants direct visual attention to and engage with concurrently presented numerical and configural vital sign displays. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We recruited 30 undergraduate students with normal hearing and vision for this study. Subjects were tasked with monitoring a simulated patient's vital signals using simultaneously presented numerical and configural vital sign displays. Concurrently, they performed an N-back task to simulate the multitasking required in a military environment. We manipulated the eccentricity and display position of the numerical and configural displays through 4 orientations, with each orientation being used in a monitoring block lasting 12 minutes. Continuous eye tracking was utilized to collect physiological data about participant display preference. RESULTS: We used eye tracking to analyze several metrics: Total display viewing time, total viewing time percentage, number of dwells (groups of eye fixations), mean fixations per dwell, and fixation patterns during an emergency event. Participants spent more time looking at the configural display than the numerical display during nominal monitoring and emergency events. During emergencies, the percentage of time individuals spent looking at the configural display increased from 30 to 50%, while there was no corresponding increase in the participants' looking at the numerical display. When there were 2 concurrent emergency events instead of 1, total viewing time did not increase, suggesting that participants did not need to change their viewing strategy when the emergency situation complexity increased. Also, during emergencies, participants directed nearly half of their fixations to the configural display during the first 2 seconds of an emergency, while only directing fewer than 5% of fixations to the numerical display during that same period. The average response time for an emergency event was around 2 seconds, which suggests that participants obtained relevant information from the configural display in this time period. CONCLUSIONS: We found that when a patient monitor contains both a configural display and a numerical display, participants look at the configural display. Furthermore, during time-sensitive situations, participants utilize the configural display to provide important information. We suggest this because the configural display integrates the relevant vital signs into one display. These findings provide justification for pursuing integrated vital sign displays to efficiently communicate patient conditions in complex environments. On the battlefield, swift decision-making is essential, as combat medics must minimize the time required to assess and act in critical situations.

Comparative Performance of Three Eye-Tracking Devices in Detection of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Acute Versus Chronic Subject Populations.

INTRODUCTION: Presently, traumatic brain injury (TBI) triage in field settings relies on symptom-based screening tools such as the updated Military Acute Concussion Evaluation. Objective eye-tracking may provide an alternative means of neurotrauma screening due to sensitivity to neurotrauma brain-health changes. Previously, the US Army Medical Research and Development Command Non-Invasive NeuroAssessment Devices (NINAD) Integrated Product Team identified 3 commercially available eye-tracking devices (SyncThink EYE-SYNC, Oculogica EyeBOX, NeuroKinetics IPAS) as meeting criteria toward being operationally effective in the detection of TBI in service members. We compared these devices to assess their relative performance in the classification of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) subjects versus normal healthy controls. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Participants 18 to 45 years of age were assigned to Acute mTBI, Chronic mTBI, or Control group per study criteria. Each completed a TBI assessment protocol with all 3 devices counterbalanced across participants. Acute mTBI participants were tested within 72 hours following injury whereas time since last injury for the Chronic mTBI group ranged from months to years. Discriminant analysis was undertaken to determine device classification performance in separating TBI subjects from controls. Area Under the Curves (AUCs) were calculated and used to compare the accuracy of device performance. Device-related factors including data quality, the need to repeat tests, and technical issues experienced were aggregated for reporting. RESULTS: A total of 63 participants were recruited as Acute mTBI subjects, 34 as Chronic mTBI subjects, and 119 participants without history of TBI as controls. To maximize outcomes, poorer quality data were excluded from analysis using specific criteria where possible. Final analysis utilized 49 (43 male/6 female, mean [x̅] age = 24.3 years, SD [s] = 5.1) Acute mTBI subjects, and 34 (33 male/1 female, x̅ age = 38.8 years, s = 3.9) Chronic mTBI subjects were age- and gender-matched as closely as possible with Control subjects. AUCs obtained with 80% of total dataset ranged from 0.690 to 0.950 for the Acute Group and from 0.753 to 0.811 for the Chronic mTBI group. Validation with the remaining 20% of dataset produced AUCs ranging from 0.600 to 0.750 for Acute mTBI group and 0.490 to 0.571 for the Chronic mTBI group. CONCLUSIONS: Potential eye-tracking detection of mTBI, per training model outcomes, ranged from acceptable to excellent for the Acute mTBI group; however, it was less consistent for the Chronic mTBI group. The self-imposed targeted performance (AUC of 0.850) appears achievable, but further device improvements and research are necessary. Discriminant analysis models differed for the Acute versus Chronic mTBI groups, suggesting performance differences in eye-tracking. Although eye-tracking demonstrated sensitivity in the Chronic group, a more rigorous and/or longitudinal study design is required to evaluate this observation. mTBI injuries were not controlled for this study, potentially reducing eye-tracking assessment sensitivity. Overall, these findings indicate that while eye-tracking remains a viable means of mTBI screening, device-specific variability in data quality, length of testing, and ease of use must be addressed to achieve NINAD objectives and DoD implementation.

Smile Arc Esthetics in Middle-Aged Man from the Layperson's Perspective Via Eye-Tracking

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the perceptions of smile esthetics associated with variations in the vertical plane of the maxillary incisors in the smile arc using eye-tracking software. Material and Methods: An image of a 59-year-old Caucasian male model was adapted and edited to make three changes in the vertical plane, simulating a convex, straight, and reverse smile arc. Four areas of interest were inserted at the right and left eyes, nose, and mouth. Forty laypeople raters between 18 and 45 years of age participated of the study. Eye-tribe hardware and Ogama software were used to perform eye-tracking. Attractiveness and age-perception questions were also incorporated into the study. ANOVA test and Pearson's correlation coefficient, at p < 0.05. Results: The most observed AOI in images with convex, straight, and reverse smiles, as assessed using heatmaps and point maps, was the mouth, followed by the right eye. A significant difference for the eye (p=0.02) was found when comparing convex and reverse smiles, whereas a significant difference for the mouth was observed between the straight and reverse smiles (p=0.03). Conclusion: Convex and straight smile arcs were associated with equal levels of attractiveness; the reverse smile was less attractive. No significant difference was noticed regarding age perception and the smile arcs. However, the reverse smile recorded a more complete fixation time.

Estudo exploratório sobre análise multimodal da atenção compartilhada / Exploratory study on the multimodal analysis of the joint attention

RESUMO O objetivo deste estudo foi produzir análise multimodal exploratória sobre a atenção compartilhada. Utilizou-se a ferramenta ELAN (EUDICO Language Annotator), software com recursos para sincronização temporal e especiais para modalidades verbal e não verbal, que facilitam a visualização e anotação de contextos interacionais. Foram analisados e transcritos trechos de dez minutos de sessão de avaliação fonoaudiológica de uma criança em investigação para transtorno do espectro do autismo (TEA) e outra, com desenvolvimento típico, pareadas por faixa etária e gênero. Foram investigadas e quantificadas as ocorrências espontâneas de direcionamento do olhar das crianças para: os olhos do interlocutor; os brinquedos e/ou brincadeiras; os olhos do interlocutor - brinquedos (atenção compartilhada). As ocorrências de direcionamento do olhar diferiram entre as crianças de forma quantitativa e qualitativa. A criança com suspeita de TEA não produziu episódio de atenção compartilhada, nem direcionou seu olhar para o interlocutor. Foram 56 ocorrências de direcionamentos de olhar apenas para os brinquedos. A criança em desenvolvimento típico produziu 18 ocorrências de atenção compartilhada, sendo que, em todas as vezes que direcionou o olhar para os olhos do interlocutor, o fez para compartilhar o brinquedo ou brincadeira. Observou-se, ainda, 37 ocorrências de direcionamento do olhar para o brinquedo. A partir da análise exploratória produzida pela ferramenta ELAN, foi possível observar que houve diferença em número de ocorrência e trajetória do olhar entre as duas crianças e verificar que a atenção compartilhada esteve ausente na criança com risco para TEA.

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to produce exploratory multimodal analysis on joint attention. We used the ELAN tool: software with resources for temporal and special synchronization for verbal and non-verbal modalities that facilitate the visualization and annotation of interactional contexts. Excerpts of ten minutes of speech and language pathology evaluation of the child with suspected ASD and of another child with typical development matched by age group and gender, were analyzed and transcribed. Spontaneous occurrences of the child's gaze were investigated: a) Towards the interlocutor's eyes. b) Towards toys or play. c) Towards the interlocutor's eyes and toys (Joint Attention). The occurrences of look direction differed between children in a quantitative and qualitative way. The child with suspected ASD did not produce an episode of joint attention, nor did he direct his gaze to the interlocutor. There were 56 occurrences of gazing towards the toys. The typical child produced 18 occurrences of joint attention, and whenever he directed his eyes to the interlocutor's eyes, he did so with the intention of sharing the toy or play. We also observed 37 occurrences of gazing towards the toy or play. From the exploratory analysis produced by ELAN tool, it was possible to observe that there were differences in the number of occurrences and look direction between the evaluated children and to verify that the joint attention was absent in the child with ASD risk.