A big part of improving and maintaining safety levels in any mine (underground or on surface), is evaluating, managing, and eliminating as many safety-related risk factors as possible.
One significant, but often poorly managed, area of risk is fatigue and the loss of alertness among equipment operators in the mine. A loss of concentration caused by fatigue, even if it’s only for a few moments while operating heavy equipment, can have disastrous consequences and severely compromise mine safety. The world’s leading mining companies understand that it is vitally important that operator fatigue is carefully monitored and proactively managed.
Using the right tools plays a big part in the effectiveness of any fatigue-monitoring program. Life by SmartCap is the only totally proactive, purpose-built fatigue monitoring solution for heavy industry. Using the LifeBand and the proprietary SmartCap fatigue algorithm, it provides a pre-emptive warning that an operator is becoming fatigued and is at risk of experiencing a highly-dangerous, but too often unmanaged, microsleep.
Life does not wait for the operator’s eyes to close before sounding the alarm. At that point, it is already too late, and “after-the-fact” data about incidents is only useful to evaluate the cause of an incident, not prevent it from happening in the first place. Instead, the Life system by SmartCap uses a combination of EEG/brain activity measurements and SmartCap’s proprietary fatigue prediction algorithm, developed over many years of research, to give predictive feedback in advance of an incident occurring.
Operators are initially given the opportunity to self-manage their fatigue and alertness levels (for example by taking breaks as required). Supervisors/managers are involved if the severity level and risk increases.
Key benefits of using the Life by SmartCap system are:
- Operator empowerment and self-correction improves self-awareness
- Prediction and early warning of dangerous situations– not just sleep detection
- Employees cannot cheat the system – brain waves cannot be ‘faked’
- Scientifically proven technology with independent studies confirming accuracy and reliability
- Designed and developed by the market leader in proactive fatigue monitoring and detection
- Completely safe, simple to use and easily deployed with pragmatic change management
- Can be used at work and at home (Safety does not end when you leave work). All other technologies are fixed to the mine equipment and can only be used when the operator is already controlling equipment in the mine.
