Wake Up! Eye-Motion Sensors Spy on Distracted Truckers

Burney Simpson

Is seeing believing? A fatigue-monitoring system for truck drivers uses eye-, head-, and facial-motion detection to determine whether the driver is getting drowsy or distracted and sends him a warning to get his stuff together.

The Driver Safety System (DSS) from Seeing Machines uses sensors inside a truck’s cab to track such indicators as eyes that are looking off to one side or down, or closed or closing eyelids. If an indicator is detected, the system sends an audible and/or vibration alert to the driver, and notifies the fleet manager so the driver can be replaced with someone that’s wide awake.

Global industrial trucking firm Caterpillar uses DSS in its giant mining trucks, and Seeing Machines has a mutually exclusive development and licensing agreement with Takata, a supplier of automotive safety systems.

Canberra, Australia-based Seeing Machines says its Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) has cut driver fatigue events by an average of 80 percent among clients that include BHP Billiton and Freeport McMoran. Seeing Machines says that there are 4,000 DSS units installed worldwide.

Seeing Machines says it plans this year to expand in North and South America, and this week it launched Seeing Machines Fleet at the National Private Truck Council annual meeting in Cincinnati. Seeing Machines has offices in Tucson, Ariz., Mountain View, Calif., and Santiago, Chile.

Seeing Machines also has a strategic alliance with Insurance Underwriting Managers of South Africa for use of its products in commercial fleets.

Seeing Machines reported gross profits of $2.2 million on total revenues of $7.5 million for the six months ending Dec 31, 2014. It is traded under the ticker SEE on the London Stock Exchange’s international AIM market for smaller companies.

Photo of 793D Mining Truck by Caterpillar.