Guardian by Seeing Machines

Guardian is engineered to increase the safety of road users by mitigating the risk of road accidents involving commercial vehicles due to fatigued or distracted driving. One in ten fatalities on roads in Australia have been directly attributed to driver distraction, while it is estimated 20-30% of all fatal accidents are caused by driver fatigue. The design brief for Guardian was to engineer a solution that provides real-time intervention, reducing the risk of commercial vehicle drivers being involved in fatigue or distraction related accidents, and to provide fleet managers with intelligent data on driver behaviour in their fleet.

Guardian is based on more than 17 years of deep domain research and development, using proprietary computer vision algorithms. Seeing Machines has exceeded the design brief by using these algorithms to engineer a real-time driver fatigue and distraction accident prevention solution, scientifically proven to reduce the occurrence of driver fatigue events by upwards of 90%. When Guardian detects that the driver is at risk it will administer a seat vibration and audio alert. Footage of this event is then sent to the 24/7 Guardian Center to be reviewed by an analyst who will contact the driver's manager within two minutes.

Guardian has intervened in more than 50,000 driver fatigue and distraction events across the globe which could have resulted in potentially life threatening accidents. Guardian reduced not only fatalities and injuries but also mitigates the large social cost of road accidents which is upwards of $33 billion a year in Australia. Guardian also has a significant commercial impact for fleet operators as it improves productivity by reducing accident rate, can reduce insurance premiums with less accident claims, and mitigates the cost of an accident which can be upwards of $2 million.

* Thermal management of the design was a key challenge for both units as dash temperatures can get very hot. The product is designed for passive cooling to minimise ongoing maintenance that would be required with fans. * Flexible, tamper-proof mounting options accommodate various dash forms and materials. Single tool and dual sided installation. * Integration of all the technology in a small elegant package. The product technology includes advanced processing, 3G, BLE, image sensing, activity sensing, dual audio, dual mics, SIMM, SD card, GPS, Haptic alerts, HMI interface and high powered IR camera sensing . * Only the in-cab sensor is visible to the driver and has been designed to take up very little space in-cab. Cameras are IR technology are located behind an IR panel to minimise any disruption to the driver. * Guardian also features a forward-facing camera which films the external environment when an event is detected. The complete kit is a seamless integrated system which can be added on removed based on the requirements. * Guardian is scientifically proven to reduce the occurrence of driver fatigue events by upwards of 90%.