Systemic role of cognitive studies in convergent technologies development

In the converging development of contemporary technologies, cognitive studies play a systemic role, which consists in controlling the compatibility of resulting products and services to psycho-physiological and ergonomic characteristics of human beings. The major task on this way is creation of cognitive technologies, i.e. high-tech tools, materials and procedures aimed at improving human situational awareness and efficiency of his/her activity. There are a large number of such emerging cognitive technologies, among them the following:1..Interfaces on the basis of new nanomaterials (Nano-Info-Cogno).2.Interfaces, sensitive to attention of users (Info-Cogno).3.Methods of explication of consciousness and diagnostics of emotion (Bio-Info-Cogno).4.Methods of recognition of gesture (Info-Cogno).5.Anthropomorphic agents/ avatars (Info-Cogno).6.Methods of cognitive genomic and cognotropic drugs (Bio-Nano-Cogno).7.Neuro-marketing (neuro-economics) and neuro-ergonomics (Bio-Cogno).8.Methods of molecular repair of human memory (Bio-Nano-Cogno).In this article, we consider examples from three domains of interaction between cognitive studies and research in natural sciences. The first group of examples is related to interface technologies. Some of them are of interest from the perspective of improving sensory facilities of blind people, others are important for industrial and medical applications (augmented reality, endoscopic operations with tactile feed-back, etc.). The second group of examples illustrates recent efforts aimed at enhancing measurement procedures in cognitive science. Finally, the third group is related to search of sub-cellular and molecular mechanisms of cognitive processes.

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