The Fatigue Monitoring System (FMS) from Seeing Machines of Canberra, Australia, is designed to prevent accidents caused by tiredness, which account for 70 per cent of those where the driver was to blame. With an infrared camera that can see through sunglasses, and an image-processing computer, the FMS assesses the frequency, duration and speed of the driver's blinking to weigh up inattention and the likelihood of imminent "microsleeps".
An "eyes on road" message booms out if the FMS senses the driver is distracted, but a shrill alarm that's "humanly impossible to sleep through" sounds if a microsleep is predicted, says Seeing Machines' CEO Ken Kroeger. Mine operators are warned of each event wirelessly, so they can redeploy consistently sleepy drivers. In early tests the FMS reduced fatigue events by 72 per cent, Kroeger says. According to New Scientist, the drowsiness detector in the cab has proved so successful that US-based firm Caterpillar is fitting the $10,000 system in all its mining trucks.
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