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Glasses provide a wake-up call

Sleep expert Murray Johns with the sensor-fitted glasses.

Photo: Craig Sillitoe

Jordan Chong November 2, 2006

DROWSY drivers have a new weapon to ensure their drooping eyelids don't cost lives.

Melbourne company Sleep Diagnostics yesterday launched Optalert, a pair of glasses equipped

with sensors that monitor a driver's eyes to determine their level of drowsiness.

Warnings come in the form of audible alerts such as "Caution, you are showing signs of

drowsiness" or "Danger, you are now too drowsy to drive".

Sleep expert Murray Johns, the brains behind the technology, said the product had gone

through two years of trials with trucking companies Linfox and Toll Holdings.

"We have a way of managing the problem, we can measure it and we can pre-empt the issue

before it gets (dangerous)," Dr Johns said. "I want to save some lives. That's the primary

objective of Optalert."

The sensors measure where the eyes are looking, how open the eyelids are and how quickly

they are moving. Droopy eyes and a long time between blinks indicate a greater level of

drowsiness.

National Roads and Motorists Association president Alan Evans said up to a third of the 1500

deaths on the roads each year were attributable to drowsiness. The NRMA invested $1 million in

the technology.

But knowing you are drowsy is pointless if you cannot find a rest stop close by, trucking bodies

say.

Australian Trucking Association chairman Trevor Martyn said 29 rest stops on the main highway

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linking Sydney and Melbourne was simply inadequate.

"It is no use telling us to stop and the next stop is 300 kilometres away," Mr Martyn said.

"We've got to be able to acquire the land now for tomorrow and start establishing (more rest

stops)."

Transport Workers Union health and safety representative Peter Earle wants more and bigger

rest stops, given 5000 trucks a night drive between Melbourne and Sydney.

"An hour outside of the major destinations is where you're trying to get to before you have your

rest. Unfortunately, everybody is trying to do the same thing," Mr Earle said.

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