Inside the Canberra headquarters of driver monitoring technology firm Seeing Machines, an alarm has been sounding every thirty seconds for the past forty hours.
Unlike a noisy suburban house alarm often ignored by neighbours, Seeing Machines human factors research scientist Dr Angus McKerral is paying close attention to the high-pitched chime.
McKerral and his research colleagues are designing a new alert for the company’s driver safety technology, Guardian, and figuring out if the alarm’s tone conveys the right amount of attention-grabbing urgency to wake up a drowsy truck driver.
Designing lifesaving fatigue detection technology is all in a day’s work – however, McKerral says no two days are the same.
“Every day, we learn something new about how humans are driving. Our work aims to figure out different human states when people are tired and distracted, learn what they are thinking about, and determine the best ways to support their safety.
“We want to know whether a person has the attention and awareness required to drive a heavy truck, and we want to know what capacity they have to be an alert driver.”
McKerral, 31, who did an undergraduate psychology degree and then a PhD in cognitive psychology focusing on how humans interact with automated systems like self-driving cars, admits he is lucky to be able to step into a job that maximises all of his experience.
“I am driven by academic curiosity. Discovering something completely new in an environment where I can immediately put that knowledge to use is unique to this job. This isn’t always the case with other research jobs where data is collected and analysed, but there’s nothing to see after the research stage.”
Guardian by Seeing Machines is unique from other driver monitoring systems in that the technology company has its own in-house research team of eight PhD scientists who design and write research projects and papers that shape product development and ensure it is grounded in robust science.
“The human factors team are all people from research backgrounds and a mix of disciplines from psychology and neuroscience to engineering and computer science.
“Human factors are essentially about interaction with the machine. We have input on different aspects of the design. This can be from algorithm development to a specific level, like how bright an LED should be – and right up to the system level, where we look more holistically at how a person will respond to a monitoring system that can do X-Y-Z.
“We have a fleet of vehicles for testing, and when new products are being piloted, we get inside them and get involved with prototyping and fitting equipment to really appreciate the user experience.”
Whether McKerral is considering an algorithm to detect drowsiness or distraction or testing how a new system alerts drivers, he’s motivated to make a meaningful contribution to road safety—with the end goal of saving lives.
“As a researcher, you want your work to be able to contribute something that has real-world benefit. Our team all has the motivation to do something bigger.”
Alongside Seeing Machines’ Canberra headquarters, the Australian business has another team in Melbourne and more offices around the world, including Guardian analyst centres in Tucson.
McKerral says Guardian systems are deployed globally and has observed differences in driver behaviour by country.
“There is a higher rate of fatigue events in North America compared to Oceania or Europe, but we have to be wary about making generalisations from these findings, even at a regional level, given there’s a mix of regulations at play.
“Behaviours shown by a truck driver travelling for hours on a US highway at the speed limit wouldn’t be compared to someone driving in Japan on a low-speed route for one-third of the distance.
“Our focus is on delivering this vital information to fleet operators, who can use camera footage of verified events and fatigue data to effectively manage their fleets so they are safer on the roads. Our sample are generally safety conscious drivers because they are already Guardian users.”
Angus McKerral is a guest speaker at the Bus and Coach Conference, Due Drop Events Centre (Thursday, October 3) and Transporting NZ North Island Seminar, Napier (Saturday, October 5).
