SBIR Phase I: Fatigue Measurement Instrument

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will lead to development of a novel technology for monitoring operator alertness/drowsiness in trucks, buses, and trains. The device would also be ideally suitable for measuring fatigue of airport control tower operators and monitoring fatigue of other mission-critical personnel in civil and military operations. Such automated alertness/fatigue monitoring technologies are expected to reduce significantly the 100,000 police-reported highway crashes that result in approximately 1500 fatalities annually as a consequence of drowsiness/fatigue factors. Blink rate is a recognized putative noninvasive marker of central dopamine activity, so the novel technology would also provide useful neurophysiologic information on brainstem function sensitive to changes in brain dopamine concentrations such as Parkinson?s disease, Schizophrenia, Tardive dyskinesia, Tourette?s syndrome and others. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to create and test novel measurement device for direct of eyelid displacement in time to asses operator awareness fatigue status. Operator fatigue degrades human performance because of lapses in vigilance and attention. The onset of fatigue remains difficult to detect, particularly in real life settings. Research shows that the measurement of PERcent of eyelid CLOSure (PERCLOS) is most sensitive to detecting operator fatigue. To assess operator awareness/fatigue status we propose to develop and test a novel measurement device for direct and precise assessment of eyelid displacement in near real time by means of electromagnetic induction. The development will consist of proving the proposed concept?s feasibility by means of a "breadboard design." The production eyelid detection device (Phase II) would most likely use a micro-electronics Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) which combines the individual discrete components used in the prototype to miniaturize and reduce size and weight. The new device is to serve as an alternative to and a refinement of the existing PERCLOS metric for prolonged precise and non-intrusive measurement of alertness/fatigue without interference with an equipment operator?s daily activity.