SBIR Phase I: Fatigue Measurement Instrument

该项目的广泛影响/商业潜力将导致一种新技术的发展，用于监测卡车、公共汽车和火车上操作员的警觉性/睡意。该装置也非常适合于测量机场控制塔台操作员的疲劳程度和监测民事和军事行动中其他关键任务人员的疲劳程度。这种自动警惕性/疲劳监测技术预计将显著减少100000起警方报告的高速公路交通事故，每年约有1500人因困倦/疲劳因素而死亡。眨眼频率是一种公认的无创中枢多巴胺活性的标志，因此这项新技术也将为脑干功能对脑多巴胺浓度变化的敏感提供有用的神经生理学信息，如帕金森？疾病，精神分裂症，迟发性运动障碍，妥瑞氏症？S综合征等。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）一期项目是创建和测试一种新的测量设备，用于及时直接测量眼睑位移，以评估操作员的意识疲劳状态。由于警惕性和注意力的缺失，操作员的疲劳会降低人类的表现。疲劳的开始仍然很难发现，特别是在现实生活中。研究表明，眼睑闭合百分率（PERCLOS）是检测操作人员疲劳程度最敏感的指标。为了评估操作者的意识/疲劳状态，我们建议开发和测试一种新的测量装置，用于通过电磁感应近实时地直接精确评估眼睑位移。发展将包括证明建议的概念？通过“面包板设计”的方法来实现S的可行性。生产眼睑检测设备（第二阶段）最有可能使用微电子应用专用集成电路（ASIC），该电路结合了原型中使用的各个分立组件，以小型化和减小尺寸和重量。新设备是现有PERCLOS测量方法的替代和改进，可以在不干扰设备操作人员的情况下，长时间精确、非侵入性地测量警觉性/疲劳。日常活动。

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.