Is the human a measurement instrument?

Brain TLS

Research Project "Geodesy meets Neuroscience"

Perceived Space Representation using Brain Activity Analysis, Eye-Tracking and Terrestrial Laser Scanning

Is the human a measurement instrument?

Within this project, we consider that the brain activity and eye movement analysis of a person in combination with a space-calibration method can be used to represent the perceived space. 

Humans describe reality with the help of veridical perception and pre-knowledge. Nowadays, brain activity analysis may be done through non-invasive methods. Most studies in the field of neuroscience are related to extracting information after observing the state of the brain. Eye-Tracking, on the other side, is used to analyze fixations and saccades by recording pupil movements with external cameras. This can be done for a multitude of purposes, but this project focuses on the gaze positions in a defined area.  The question arises if the signals captured with a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) combined with eye-tracking information and corrected by an existing 3D model of the observed space can be used to create a digital representation of the same space. 

The human a measurement instrument
Is the human a measurement instrument?

Objective

The scale and geometry of the perceived space are firstly defined with the help of a 3D terrestrial laser scanner (TLS). The implied methods and experiments aim at establishing a connection between instrument-measured space and human-perceived space. Defining geometric relationships between the observer (person) - observed objects and finding a correlation of the geometric attributes with the brain activity and eye-tracking data are the main goals of this project. If these goals are achieved, an innovative measurement method may be developed and a better insight into how the human brain perceives the surrounding space may be gained.

Project partners

·         Visualization Research Center – University of Stuttgart

·         Cognitive Neuroscience Lab – Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen

Financing

RISC – Research Seed Capital (Blue Skies Research)

·         50% Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg

·         50% University of Stuttgart

Project duration

March 2020 – March 2022

This image shows Gabriel Kerekes

Gabriel Kerekes

Dr.-Ing.

Research Associate

This image shows Volker  Schwieger

Volker Schwieger

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Dr. h.c.

Director of the Institute

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