National Survey of Research Commercialisation - Australian ...

And there are other benefits. The system’s use can improve a project’s community
relations by providing a quick response to new constraints arising from the consultation
process, and it can also factor in issues that produce better environmental outcomes.
PRODUCT SUCCESS STORIES
SEEING MACHINES
Your car will soon be able to warn you if you’ve dozed off at the wheel, not only saving
you and your passengers, but also the thousands of other people killed or injured by
sleeping or inattentive drivers around the world each year. Not to mention saving some of
the $3 billion each year in costs directly attributable to fatigue-related road accidents in
Australia alone.
The installation of fatigue warning systems in cars is now only three to five years away
thanks to an eye-tracking system called ‘faceLAB’, which was developed by a commercial
spin-off from the Australian National University, Seeing Machines Pty Ltd. The
Canberra-based company has been operating only since 2000, yet the automotive and
electronics giants that have already bought ‘faceLAB’ include Bosch, DaimlerChrysler,
Mitsubishi, Motorola, Nissan, Toyota and Volvo. Some have bought several, even though
each unit costs up to $80,000.
The original research at the ANU which produced ‘faceLAB’ was supported by an ARC
grant in 1995 and 1996. Indeed, ‘ARC funding was vital to the early development of this
technology at the ANU — “faceLAB” would not exist without it’, says the company’s
International Market Developer, Gavin Longhurst.
Seeing Machines, which was recently awarded the 2002 Eureka Prize for Information
and Communications Technology Innovation, was founded by its CEO, Alex Zelinsky,
a former Professor of Robotics in the ANU’s Faculty of Engineering, and now employs
20 people. ‘Our two main investors are the ANU and Volvo, which collaborated on the
original research,’ says Mr Longhurst.
In the past, observation of driver behaviour was subjective, laborious and frequently
imprecise, with analysis prone to error. By contrast, ‘faceLAB’ is a computer vision
research tool that allows driver behaviour to be objectively observed, measured and
recorded. It is capable of registering even the tiniest of eye movements that betray driver
fatigue or distraction. It is being used not only to develop driver warning systems, but
also to intercept car design problems before they reach the road, and to supply evidence
for legislative decision processes.
In addition to this, and generating revenue for Seeing Machines and its investors,
‘faceLAB’ has another important use — stopping the brain drain. As Mr Longhurst says:
‘We’ve shown that it’s not just places like MIT or Stanford that can spin off commercially
successful enterprises — Australian universities can too.’
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