Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ChronoPilot (Modulating Human Subjective Time Experience)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-09-01 bis 2024-02-29
ChronoPilot’s novel paradigm is to utilise the malleability of the subjective experience of time for our advantage at any moment. ChronoPilot aims to control the plasticity of human time perception by delivering stimuli via mediated-reality technology into the human’s senses of vision, audition, and haptics.
The proposed technological breakthrough to purposefully manipulate subjective time relies on a set of cognitive approaches, which are based on findings in both neuroscience and psychology to tune time experience. We aim at a comprehensive understanding of time modulation, through modelling of key variables and the interplay of different senses in human time perception. The exploited cognitive approaches are translated through a set of body-worn technologies into particular stimuli that are fed dynamically into the human’s senses of vision, audition, and haptics as a function of the situation, sensory integration and physiological indicators of mental workload, stress, and flow.
ChronoPilot aims to improve individual lives and interactions with other humans, as well as with novel artificial systems. Humans may mutually influence each other’s time perception. We will investigate how networked ChronoPilots can synchronise time modulation strategies between all members of a group. Looking into the future, we expect an evolution towards a hybrid society in which we interact more and more with technological counterparts, such as robots. Humans may be overwhelmed by the speed, accuracy, and quantity of information flow of these systems. We will research how ChronoPilot can help.
ChronoPilot aspires to provide proof-of-value in two real-world scenarios. In the first scenario, we aim to manipulate time in order to improve the control of a user over multiple mobile robots in precision farming. In the second scenario, we aim to create flow in the cooperation of a heterogeneous group of humans that differ in experience and skill in an industrial production setting.
ChronoPilot will be realized through the interdisciplinarity of its consortium, which is comprised of experts in cognitive science, neuroscience, perception, behavioural modelling, artificial intelligence, mediated reality, and robotics. Our novel methods of time modulation will pave the way for innovative applications and products improving efficiency, well-being, productivity, creativity, and safety.
A lot of work has been taking place in terms of the automatic classification of subjective timing behaviour using machine learning methods trained on physiological signals, EEG signatures and visual features predicting subjective timing, and pupillometry techniques to measure the subjective cognitive load. Furthermore, work has been done on the modelling of desirability and uncertainty of outcomes on cognitive load and its effects on timing. Finally, studies are underway on the hybrid human-robot interaction under different conditions of swarm size, speed, cueing events, type of motion, and human action. We developed the second and final scenario of ChronoPilot, the Industrial Production scenario, which was built on the knowledge gained from the development of the first scenario but in an even more flexible and extensible format so as to incorporate all possible needs of the consortium. The Precision Farming scenario was also utilized in this reporting period by developing our first single-person controlling ChronoPilot demonstration, which is currently designed to become our first fully integrated ChronoPilot experiment.
Putting humans at the center of the development to reduce stress (burnout) as well as boredom, increase the overall quality of life and mitigate the costs of stress-related mental health issues, ChronoPilot will have a significant societal impact. Creating awareness for the opportunities and challenges of the plasticity of subjective timing, ChronoPilot will offer a new dimension to policy makers and the population.
By paving the way for new applications and products that improve efficiency and well-being, the ChronoPilot technological results hold great potential to form a new market of time-plasticity software and devices. SMEs or even individual persons can take the idea and develop time-modulating various applications. Potential application domains include: A. industry 5.0. Τhe factory of the future will be focused on the cooperation between man and machine, as human intelligence works in harmony with cognitive computing embedded in devices such as co-bots. B. healthcare. Νovel curative approaches for mental health disorders with altered time perception or reduction of the perceived time of painful medical treatments. C. cultural and creative industry. Content producers will benefit from techniques of manipulating time in interactive storytelling formats.