An astronaut aboard the International Space Station is preparing for an extra-vehicular activity spacewalk when a computerized voice says, "You've been smiling 20-percent less than usual lately. Are you worried about something? Homesick?"
It sounds like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but according to David Dinges, Chief of the Division of Sleep and Chronobiology with the School of Medicine, this scenario could play out within a few years not just in space, but on Earth - where it could be used to help a stressed student or an overworked medical resident.
Dinges has collaborated with a number of researchers at other institutions to develop the Reaction Self-Test, or RST, a three-minute test performed at least four times a day designed to monitor astronauts' emotional and physical reaction levels on the International Space Station over the next four years.
The stress levels recorded in space are compared to individual astronauts' normal reaction times as recorded in the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations module - used to train astronauts - beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Conditions in NEEMO are designed to mimic those in space. The RST will be sent to the ISS Sept. 30.
While the RST is relatively simple, Dinges said, similar technologies could be expanded to cover a wide range of functions over the next few years and applied to a variety of fields, including the military, power plants, long-haul aviation and medical residency.
His ultimate goal is a kind of robotic psychiatrist that would assess a user's mood using questions and facial recognition technology before guiding the user through possible solutions.
For example, the program might play music for a student stressed out by exams or begin calling the home of a homesick astronaut.
Because his assessment program is software-based, Dinges thinks a version usable on a webcam-equipped personal computer could be distributed to the general public within the next few years.
While his work could generate some privacy concerns, Dinges said the use of this technology will ultimately be determined by what people want to do with it.
College senior Nii Mensah became interested in Dinges' research during an introductory biology class his freshman year and has been working in Dinges' lab since his sophomore year.
"It's sleep and chronobiology oriented, and that's a field where in science you don't really touch upon it unless you take a specific class on it." Mensah said. "I felt it would be more interesting than doing the standard Parkinson's research or biology research."
While the research mainly focuses on sleep and chronobiology, Dinges constantly seeks practical applications.
"We do stuff that would scare most normal people," he said. "Whenever a human absolutely positively has to get something done, and it goes against their biology, like staying up all night, or traveling across time zones, or going into space, we are interested in those questions."
