Wake-up call
Researchers at CRCMining have come up with a world-first technique for detecting if the operators of heavy mining equipment are getting sleepy. The breakthrough addresses a problem that potentially costs the industry hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lost productivity and accidents, but for which there has been, until now, no effective answer. Using a technology approach originally devised to prevent breakdowns in longwall mining equipment, Dr Daniel Bongers and his team have found a way to monitor the brainwaves of operators and tell if they are getting drowsy.
The technique uses an EEG (electro-encephalogram) to monitor the brain’s electrical signals, and a self-training artificial neural network to interpret the level of drowsiness of the subject.
The team is currently developing a comfy baseball-style cap whose ‘dry’ sensors can pick up brain signals without need for the usual shaving and gel connections for electrodes. The signals are transmitted to a laptop by wireless, which can analyse them and warn the driver of his drowsiness state.
12-Feb-2007