SBIR Phase I: Fatigue Measurement Instrument

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将导致开发一种新技术，用于监测卡车，公共汽车和火车中的操作员警觉性/困倦。该设备也非常适合测量机场控制塔操作员的疲劳度，并监测民用和军事行动中其他关键任务人员的疲劳度。 这种自动化的警觉性/疲劳监测技术预计将显著减少100，000起警方报告的高速公路撞车事故，这些事故每年由于困倦/疲劳因素导致大约1500人死亡。 眨眼率是公认的中枢多巴胺活性的非侵入性标志物，因此这项新技术也将提供有用的神经生理学信息，说明脑干功能对脑多巴胺浓度变化敏感，如帕金森？精神分裂症迟发性运动障碍妥瑞症这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目是创建和测试用于及时引导眼睑位移的新型测量设备，以评估操作员的意识疲劳状态。 操作员疲劳会降低人的绩效，因为警觉性和注意力的丧失。疲劳的发作仍然难以检测，特别是在真实的生活环境中。研究表明，眼睑闭合百分比（PERCLOS）的测量对检测操作员疲劳最敏感。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，用于通过电磁感应在近真实的时间内直接和精确地评估眼睑位移。 开发将包括证明所提出的概念？的可行性，通过一个“面包板设计。“生产眼睑检测设备（第二阶段）将最有可能使用微电子专用集成电路（ASIC），它结合了原型中使用的各个分立元件，以简化和减少尺寸和重量。新设备将作为现有PERCLOS指标的替代和改进，用于长期精确和非侵入性的警觉性/疲劳测量，而不干扰设备操作员？的日常活动。

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.