Detection of fatigue is of interest for preventing motor vehicle accidents, especially since onset of fatigue often occurs unnoticed by the driver.
Many drivers carry a sleep debt and are susceptible to drowsiness while driving.
Groups at highest risk for fatigue-related accidents include travelers, truck drivers, late shift workers, and commercial pilots. In 1997, motor vehicle accidents caused 37,280 fatalities and 2,185,000 injuries in the U.S. alone. Prevention of even a small percentage of the accidents in which fatigue is a factor would have an enormous human and economic impact. FUTH s alertness monitoring technology has applications in several types of vehicles including cars, trucks, buses, trains, ships, airplanes, military vehicles, and agricultural equipment. Company co-founder Jeffrey B. Bishop, an expert in biomedical engineering and ergonomics, first began to develop transportation safety products in 1990 after a friend fell asleep at the wheel and was seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident.