Biotechnical measurement and software system controlled features for determining the level of psycho-emotional tension on man–machine systems by fuzzy measures

Abstract

► A new software technique for determining emotional tension on humans is presented. ► For numerous diseases, a significant risk factor is long-term psycho-emotional tension. ► The assessment of tension is demonstrated on the diagnosis of digestive system diseases. ► In practice acceptable diagnosis quality is achieved without special medical equipment. ► The use of fuzzy logic decision-making can take parameter uncertainties into account. A new software technique for determining emotional tension on humans is developed by means of psychological tests connected with the psycho-emotional sphere and on indicators characterizing the state of a subject’s visual attention. Each of these two areas determines several factors for psycho-emotional tension. The level of tension is determined as an aggregate of these two components with the rules of fuzzy logic. The membership functions and solving rules for the psychological tests, and for the state of visual attention, are constructed using fuzzy logic theory. It is shown that the resulting method can be used as an informative feature for prediction of many properties, such as the situational awareness (training and experience) of an operator and the operator’s individual capacity to function (mental–physiological limits). The second group of indicators characterize properties such as switchable attention (the ability to switch attention) (SWA), concentration (ability to concentrate) (CNA), stability of visual attention (STA) and parameters determining the state of memory. One of the most important issues for man–machine systems is to evaluate the performance of operators under abnormal conditions such as stress or tension.