JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

We present the Wearable Cognitive Assessment and Augmentation Toolkit (WearCAAT), a cross-platform mobile application to conduct functional neuroimaging research with modern mobile devices. The need to observe human cognition in more natural environments, i.e., outside of sterile Laboratory Settings, is critical to understanding human cognition and behavior. Smartphones offer a unique perspective, their ubiquity and computational power make them excellent candidates for “Pocket Labs,” Laboratories that fit in a pocket and can travel with their subjects. However, mobile app development is inherently difficult; the mobile-device ecosystem is massive, and growing, and requires deep technical knowledge and considerable time investments, which bar non-technical researchers from participating. WearCAAT offers a robust yet flexible platform for neuroimaging which implements mobile versions of well-known cognitive tasks, with a seamless integration of existing setups and third-party neuroimaging sensors, via Lab-Streaming Layer a well-vetted software suite for sensor synchronization and data collection. We designed WearCAAT to bypass the deep technical knowledge requirements and time-investment of mobile app development and offer a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) platform for non-technical users whose domain expertise in cognitive neuroscience is most valuable. To our knowledge, WearCAAT is the first attempt at a general-purpose neuro-imaging laboratory designed for mobile devices and represents a major step toward a “Pocketable Lab” for cognitive neuroscience research.