H-SMART to Assist NASA in Evaluating Astronaut Readiness
NASA-Funded TRISH to Use HarmonEyes Eye-Tracking to Help Predict Astronaut Cognitive Load and Fatigue
The NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) has tapped HarmonEyes to deploy H-SMART to help measure and predict cognitive load and fatigue before it becomes a behavioral safety risk in spaceflight. The HarmonEyes Human State Monitoring and Readiness Tool (H-SMART) is a system designed to measure eye movements to assess cognitive load and fatigue levels.
“The eyes tell us a lot about our mental condition and with HarmonEyes, we’re able to monitor them to gauge cognitive load and fatigue in real time.”
Adam Gross, HarmonEyes
H-SMART will be deployed in late 2025 at the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic stations run by the Australian Antarctic Program. By measuring subtle changes in eye movements, H-SMART delivers passive, highly accurate, real-time monitoring of cognitive load and fatigue. In long-duration missions, where even minor performance decrements can be mission-critical, HarmonEyes’ technology provides astronauts and controllers with a critical early warning system and delivers interventions and corrective actions in real time. By applying advanced AI and machine learning for predictive modeling, HarmonEyes ensures H-SMART can adapt to the unique demands of extended space missions, where maintaining peak performance over months or years is mission-critical.
These solutions will be implemented to monitor and predict the participants’ actual (versus perceived) levels of cognitive load and fatigue in extreme environmental conditions.
“The eyes tell us a lot about our mental condition and with HarmonEyes, we’re able to monitor them to gauge cognitive load and fatigue in real time, ensuring peak cognitive performance during mission-critical situations like space exploration,” said Adam Gross, CEO and Co-Founder of HarmonEyes. “This partnership with TRISH validates our solution but more exciting than that, brings mankind one step closer to safer missions to the Moon and Mars.”
The H-SMART solution provides instantaneous data to the astronaut and support personnel via HarmonEyes “Theia™ SDK” (software development kit). Theia delivers results that are real time, at the edge, and easily understood so feedback can be applied immediately, enabling the tool to be broadly used by relevant user groups.
“The unobtrusive design of the H-SMART eye-tracking system makes it easy to deploy in extreme environments and practical for astronauts in space,” said Rihana Bokhari, PhD, Scientific Research Director for TRISH. “By validating this technology in Antarctica, we can better understand how it will help astronauts stay focused and mission-ready during the most demanding expeditions.”
“In the Antarctic we will demonstrate that H-SMART can offer superior prediction of astronaut’s cognitive and fatigue states solely based on eye metrics,” added Gross. “This is state-of-the-art technology, and we can tailor the hardware and software to meet additional needs in almost any category or industry.”