{"id":168,"date":"2025-05-31T21:15:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T21:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8881\/2025\/05\/31\/researchers-develop-face-e-tattoo-to-track-mental-workload-in-high-stress-jobs\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T21:15:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T21:15:23","slug":"researchers-develop-face-e-tattoo-to-track-mental-workload-in-high-stress-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flamenet.io\/2025\/05\/31\/researchers-develop-face-e-tattoo-to-track-mental-workload-in-high-stress-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"
Researchers develop face ‘e-tattoo’ to track mental workload in high-stress jobs<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Scientists say that they have formulated a way to help people in stressful and demanding work environments track their brainwaves and brain usage \u2014 an electronic tattoo device, or “e-tattoo,” on the person’s face.<\/p>\n

In a study posted in the science journal Device<\/a>, the team of researchers wrote that they found e-tattoos to be a more cost-effective and simpler way to track one\u2019s mental workload.<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Nanshu Lu, the senior author of the research from the University of Texas at Austin<\/a>, wrote that mental workload is a critical factor in human-in-the-loop systems, directly influencing cognitive performance and decision-making.<\/p>\n

Lu told Fox News Digital in an email that this device was motivated by high-demand, high-stake jobs such as pilots, air traffic controllers, doctors and\u00a0emergency dispatchers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TEEN GOES FROM 10 NIGHTLY SEIZURES TO ZERO WITH BRAIN IMPLANT<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Lu also said ER doctors and robot\/drone operators can also leverage this technology for training and performance enhancements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the goals of this study was to find a way to measure cognitive fatigue<\/a> in high leverage and mentally straining careers.<\/p>\n

The e-tattoo is temporarily attached to the subject’s forehead, and is smaller than current devices in use today.<\/p>\n

According to the study, the device works by using electroencephalogram (EEG)<\/a> and electrooculogram (EOG) to measure both brain waves and eye movements.<\/p>\n

8 SLEEP TRACKERS TO HELP YOU GET A BETTER NIGHT’S REST<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

While most EEG and EOG machines are bulky and expensive, the e-tattoo offers a compact and cost-effective solution.<\/p>\n

Lu wrote that in this study, “we propose a wireless forehead EEG and EOG sensor designed to be as thin and conformable to the skin as a temporary tattoo sticker, which is referred to as a forehead e-tattoo<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Lu<\/a> also added that “human mental workload is a crucial factor in the fields of human-machine interaction<\/a> and ergonomics due to its direct impact on human cognitive performance.<\/a>“<\/p>\n

The way the study was conducted was with six participants being shown a screen on which 20 letters flashed up, one at a time, at various locations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Participants were asked to click a mouse if either the letter itself, or its location, matched one shown a given number of letters.<\/p>\n

Each participant carried out the task multiple times, corresponding to four levels of difficulty.<\/p>\n

The team found that as the tasks became harder, the different types of brainwaves detected showed shifts in activity that corresponded to a higher mental workload response.<\/p>\n

The device consists of<\/a> a battery pack and reusable chips with a disposable sensor.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Lu said that the device is currently a lab prototype.<\/p>\n

“Before it can be ready for commercialization, it will need more development, such as real-time, on-tattoo mental workload decoding and validation on more people and in more realistic environments,” she said. “The prototype currently costs $200.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists say that they have formulated a way to help people in stressful and demanding work environments track their brainwaves and brain usage \u2014 an… [more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flamenet.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flamenet.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flamenet.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flamenet.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flamenet.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flamenet.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flamenet.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flamenet.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flamenet.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}