Development of EEG Multicolor Evoked Flash for Selecting Pilots of Carrier-Based Aircraft

Objective. To develop a multi-color photic EEG induced flash device for pilots of carrier-based aircraft. The flash can simulate the color of the guidance cursor of an aircraft carrier landing, and provide an identification method for selecting pilots of carrier-based aircraft who are sensitive to color light and may induce potential epilepsy. Methods. The lamp body of the device was designed as length × width × thickness = 35 × 8 × 3 cm, and the material was a 3mm thick plexiglass cuboid. Only the front side was transparent, and the other sides were opaque. There are 4 rows of high-brightness light-emitting diodes (LED) in the body of the lamp, which can emit light in 4 colors: red, yellow, green and orange. The colors of red, yellow and green each contain 36 LED, and the colors of orange contain 18 LED. In the 4 rows of LED, the spacing of each row of lLED is 1.0 cm. Under the control of EEG flashing program, the four color LED of the device can light up in the order of red, yellow, green and orange colors. At the same time, each color can flash at 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 20 and 30 Hz. The duration of each color flash is 5 s, and the interval is 5 s. The bracket is designed to be foldable and retractable. During the inspection, the flash light is placed 15 cm in front of the subject’s eyes through a retractable folding arm. The control box circuit consists of a Darlington transistor connected to emit electrical signals from the brain and control the flash of the lamp body. Results. The comparative application of the device showed that the effect of color light on epileptoid brain dysfunction was not significantly different from that of conventional flash light (ordinary light). Conclusion. The device can make up for the deficiency of clinical flash induction method, and can be used in the selection and identification of pilots with color photosensitive epilepsy risk.