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Friday 29 September 2024

 

A wearable device that’s been designed to detect the onset of fatigue in tram drivers has delivered remarkable results in independent testing commissioned by UKTram.

The organisation representing the light rail sector reports that the cutting-edge technology, developed by Integrated Human Factors, has an accuracy rate of greater than 98%.

Following extensive trials, prototype FOCUS+ devices have demonstrated their potential to reduce the risk of accidents by alerting control room operators of possible driver fatigue.

James Hammett, Managing Director of UK Tram, expressed his confidence in the technology.

“The independent testing report confirms the potential of FOCUS+,” he said. “In the future, it could play a key role in fatigue management system guidance, ensuring the well-being and safety of network employees and their passengers.”

Trials of the device have emerged from an initial Driver Innovation Safety Challenge (DISC), which involved City of Edinburgh Council, Transport for Edinburgh, Edinburgh Trams, and the Scotland Can Do Fund, working in partnership with UKTram and IHF Limited.

Neil Clark, CEO of IHF Limited, explained: “We were proud to have been selected to develop this cutting-edge wearable technology as part of the DISC project.

“FOCUS+ was three years in the making, having evolved using a combination of data analytics, biometrics and Human Factors-best practice approach to safety.

“It represents a significant leap forward in proactive fatigue monitoring and workplace safety. I am excited that we have had the system endorsed by the LRSSB and can now go on and fully commercialise the system. We have already had inquiries from as far away as Australia, with its versatility making it a consideration for many hazardous sectors.”

A pilot, which started in 2020, collected a large quantity of data from its volunteers that was used to refine the product and to ‘train’ the FOCUS+ algorithms through machine learning. FOCUS+ then underwent rigorous testing and user-centric design enhancements in collaboration with UK tram drivers, control room personnel, data scientists, and independent volunteers.

The Light Rail Safety and Standards Board has also played a key role in the project, assessing algorithms that underpin the system.

Carl Williams, the organisation’s Chief Executive, said: “To establish the 98 per cent accuracy of the algorithms used to assess the data is certainly a remarkable achievement.

“It clearly illustrates the potential of the devices and the underlying software to effectively detect driver fatigue in real-world situations and to further enhance light rail safety.”

The prototype devices feature a sophisticated array of five biometric sensors that continuously monitor the wearer’s vital signs, creating a personalised biometric profile over time. These sensors measure heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, skin temperature temperature, electrocardiogram, and galvanic skin response.

Such comprehensive data collection enables the device to detect deviations from the wearer’s baseline, providing real-time, colour-coded alerts for both the user and a control room or supervisor.

Neil Clark added: “The ground-breaking solution has the potential to revolutionise fatigue detection in safety-critical roles across various industries. While initially tested by light-rail drivers, FOCUS+ has cross-industry applicability and is suitable for anyone in safety-critical roles across various organisations and industrial sectors.”

FOCUS+ is set to reshape the landscape of safety-critical roles, offering a proactive approach to fatigue prevention and management. To learn more about FOCUS+ and its capabilities, click here.

March 2024

 

Neil Clark, Melanie Mertesdorf and Sadaf Bader from Integrated Human Factors won this year’s CIEHF Innovation Award. They demonstrated outstanding human factors work in developing a game-changing, next-generation wearable device that proactively predicts human fatigue in its wearers. 

Integrated Human Factors (IHF) have successfully developed a next-generation wearable device (now called Baseline NC) that proactively predicts fatigue in its wearers. The journey to create this device was filled with challenges and learning experiences. It required us to push the boundaries of technology and reimagine the way we address health, wellness, and fatigue prediction. Our team’s relentless focus on innovation, technology and just “getting it right” has led to a solution that is not just effective, but also user-friendly and accessible. 

This device is more than just a wearable; we genuinely believe it to be a game-changer in fatigue management. Our initial focus is on trams and light railways however, the applications are pan-industry including the wider passenger and freight rail industries. By proactively predicting fatigue through biomarkers, IHF aim to enhance the safety and quality of life for many by providing a tool for data-driven fatigue management. It’s a step towards a future where technology and human performance merge seamlessly to empower individuals and improve overall system performance. 

A pilot, which started in 2020, collected a large quantity of data from its volunteers that was used to refine the product and to ‘train’ the wearable algorithms through machine learning. The wearable then underwent rigorous testing and user-centric design enhancements in collaboration with UK tram drivers, control room personnel, data scientists, and independent volunteers.   

The project was born out of a need to research, create, develop, and manufacture a viable unobtrusive product that could house a system whose functionality could accurately monitor, and alert increases in cognitive fatigue levels. As a workplace Human Factor Consultancy group, we recognised the need to ensure individual fatigue thresholds are never exceeded and suitable safety margins and processes are put in place to prevent or minimise the introduction of human error, which is often attributed to impeded arousal levels.   

The devices feature a sophisticated array of five biometric sensors that continuously monitor the wearer’s vital signs, creating a personalised biometric profile over time. These sensors measure heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, skin temperature, electrocardiogram, and galvanic skin response. Such comprehensive data collection enables the device to detect deviations from the wearer’s baseline, providing real-time, colour-coded alerts for both the user and a control room or supervisor.  

The project followed a system Verification and Validation (VnV) development and evaluation process. The evaluation of the Baseline wearable device was non-gender specific and was conducted via a combination of verified and validated subjective SART and KSS feedback, plus objective PVT assessments, in conjunction with observational data gathering from a non-interacting Human Factor Subject Matter Expert observer during simulated scenarios. The outcomes were compared against baseline recorded data and associated RAG status to see if indicated fatigue levels correlated. Independent testing showed that the wearable has an accuracy rate of greater than 98%. 

September 2023

Ryan Donald is a Chartered Safety Professional (CMIOSH) and Human Factors Consultant (Chartership pending) with extensive experience in the management of safety in the subsea industry and experience in applying Human Factors methods in the offshore Oil & Gas industry. He has a master’s degree in Behaviour Change with a specialist pathway in Ergonomics and Human Factors.

How did you get into the Human Factors sector?

I used to be a Health and Safety Advisor in the diving industry and the organisation was keen on implementing behaviour-based safety approaches, focusing on intervention and safety conversations to increase occurrences of safe behaviours. Although this is important, I felt there was something missing from the approach. My first thought was “if we think behaviours cause incidents, then doesn’t it make sense to address the things influencing undesired behaviours”? Around about this time, a client was venturing into Human Factors and requested it be considered within our risk assessments. This was the spark that led me to pursuing a career in Human Factors, so I began studying. I soon realised it was a massively diverse discipline, one which considers the wider influences on behaviour and looks past “human error” to understand the true causes of incidents. Most importantly, Human Factors proactively evaluates influences on performance. I was, and still am, hooked so working at IHF gives me the chance to refine my skills further …

You mentioned the impact of the working environment on people. Can the working environment be that impactful?

Yes.  In my opinion, the external working environment is one of the major influences on our behaviour. Take a competent person, add in a little work pressure and/or a poorly designed system, then you may have an increased the risk of error. When we think of a workplace we really enjoy being in, we may have high levels of intrinsic motivation. If we are challenged, developed and are left to our devices in terms of autonomy, then we may have stronger motivation. Take me for example, if I am micro-managed (with  low autonomy), this effects my performance, especially my confidence and decision-making ability. This is an influence of my work environment and shows how the behaviour of others is an external influence on my own behaviour and subsequent performance.

What is your expertise and why do you like this part of your job?

I feel like I have a good understanding of what can influence us as people. I have a good understanding of cognitive process such as attention, decision making and memory in order to understand the influence of poor task / work environment design. I don’t think this is massively different from many Human Factors practitioners, but I pride myself in what I can bring to the role of a Human Factors Consultant. I really do feel in my element when doing human error analysis, really understanding a task and how it can influence the workforce psychologically as well as physically.

 

What do you like about working at IHF?

I really like the people, it sounds cliché, but they are a great bunch of people. Also, my role at IHF is very diverse. From safety critical task analysis, to applying research methods to explore experiences of the workforce to inform improvement initiatives. IHF have a wide client base across many industries so there is always something new to learn helping me enhance my skill set and knowledge.

What do you think is your biggest achievement in your work life?

I don’t really have one. I like to have rolling goals to keep me motivated. I tend to achieve a goal, pat myself on the back and move on to the next one. At risk of yet another cliché, I just want to be good at what I do and continue to develop.

What aspects of this field are the most difficult to deal with?

Challenges come from peoples understanding of the Human Factors discipline, which can be quite a significant barrier. For starters, the term Human Factors does make it seem to be about people, perhaps fuelling the misconception that Human Factors and human error or behaviour are one and the same. There is a lot to get your head around, so confusion or lack of understanding can easily be forgiven. There is a lot of complexity in Human Factors as many aspects feed into this term: cognitive ergonomics, physical ergonomics and organisational ergonomics to name three broad topics. There is a book by R.S. Bridger about human factors in investigation where he says, right from the outset, “Human Factors is not about people, it’s about the things that affect people”. I think that is a great summary of the discipline.

You are a lead investigator: which are the main aspects of an investigation that are less obvious in an undesired event?

When an incident occurs, it is very easy to identify the immediate cause, it is usually a behaviour. The obvious things are physical interactions, or the agent of harm, these are often the focus – i.e., changing signage, changing design etc… These are important, however, what we don’t do so well is explore the decision-making process, consider what that person thought to be true at the time and we don’t consider the influences of the social environment and behaviour of others and how this influences motivation or attitudes. This does take a shift in mindset, understanding the context from the perspective of those involved.

 

I won’t pretend that I always thought this way, it took some effort to understand it and change my own attitude. It is something I feel is vital to understand though. I mean if our number one asset is people, maybe we should understand what makes them tick. Just as we know the failure modes of a technical system and what to do if it were to deviate from the plan, we should know the same of people and reduce the risk of human failure. That can be done through effective investigations which consider humans and their limitations.

How do you manage to keep a healthy work balance?

I feel like a walking cliché here, but my family. I truly value family time. It is easy to get sucked into work, doing a few extra hours here and there is fine, but it’s important to have a work/life balance.

What are your recommendations to someone starting a career in Human Factors ?

Firstly, I would try and get a good understanding of human behaviour as well as the technical aspects associated with the industry you are working in. This would be true for those coming from a psychology background or an engineering one.

The Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF) have their competence pathway. It sets you off on a journey which spans the Human Factors discipline and by listening to their Webinars and other events you will enhance your knowledge and skill set. I would encourage to join and attend as much as you can. They offer access to Ergonomics and Applied Ergonomics journals, allowing you an insight into recent research and advancements in the discipline. Also, their mentor program is fantastic. They set you up with a Chartered Ergonomics organisation who supports your Human factors journey. Speaking from experience, having a mentot is fantastic and has some great advice and he has supported me for nearly two years. His support has been invaluable.

 

 

Interview and pictures by Paola Usala

Human Factors consultancy IHF has established a partnership with an innovative duo from the aviation and medical sectors.

Airline captain James Taylor and his consultant oncologist father Roger will work as associates of Edinburgh-based IHF to enhance its capabilities in human factors, and will set up an office in Brighton.

IHF’s team of 24 consultants and trainers around the world set out to understand and resolve what are commonly regarded as “human errors” in any system or process.

Apart from big oil and gas, trade unions are also signed up as they make risk and safety a top priority for their members in these industries.

Neil Clark, CEO, who runs IHF said: “I am really excited about partnering with James and Roger. Its testament to how far IHF have come in the last 12 years that we are bringing on board such high calibre professionals.

“Human Factors is a growing discipline in both the healthcare and aviation sectors, so it makes sense to bolster our teams’ capabilities in these areas. As an RAF pilot myself I have seen how best practice in aviation is being adopted by other sectors and the influence of human factors continues to grow exponentially in medicine”.

James Taylor has 16 years experience as an airline pilot with seven of those as a captain. He has also undertaken the training of pilots in the flight simulator.

He said: “Every time I fly a passenger airliner or train a pilot, I am reminded of how important the safety culture in the industry is, with the key focus being on implementing procedures that have human factors at their heart.

“Everyone in the industry acknowledges the importance of the strong safety culture which over the decades has developed robust processes for identifying and correcting issues which may carry even a very slight risk.

“Human factors may pose a risk in themselves or exacerbate the risk from mechanical or electronic factors. I strongly believe that airline style safety can and should be applied to all settings especially in healthcare”.

Roger has been a consultant oncologist for 35 years, planning and supervising radiotherapy and chemotherapy for patients with cancer and contributed to the “Towards Safer Radiotherapy” document.

He has been vice-president of the Royal College of Radiologists and Clinical Director for Swansea Health Board Cancer Services.

He said: “Radiotherapy is already one of the safest processes in hospital medicine, however we need to maintain our guard. Radiotherapy planning and a delivery are multistep processes requiring input from several different staff groups.

“Therefore, it is essential to mitigate the risk from any human factor which might pose a risk to safety. In healthcare circles we often talk about applying the airline industry safety culture but there is much more that could be done to implement this across organisations”.

Integrated Human Factors, one of the UK’s leading specialist Human Factors consultancies is expanding its offering in the Australia and the wider Asia Pacific region and establishing an office in Perth, Western Australia.

IHF, a tech-driven human factors consultancy was founded a decade ago in the UK by Neil Clark and is a registered member of the UK Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF). The IHF client base includes many large enterprises in the aviation, defence, financial services, healthcare, oil and gas, transportation, and utilities industries.

Leading the expansion in Australia will be David Clarke, Director, and Managing Partner of IHF Asia Pacific. David has worked across Airlines, Human Capital and Human Factors in both Australia and the UK over the last 25 years in both front-line and management positions

David said;

Expanding in Australia and Asia Pacific is the natural next step for the IHF Group. With so many hazardous and process focussed industries based in Australia, not to mention the explosion in transport-related infrastructure projects across the Asia Pacific region it made sense to expand our operations here.

“The global shortage of competent and experienced Human Factors specialists has made it almost impossible for businesses to adequately address their organisational Human Factors – and not to mention regulatory – obligations. Therefore, businesses are having to adapt by developing their in-house capability to manage their human factors requirements. To do this, they need a robust suite of easy-to-use software tools to manage their human-risk management backed up by top-level expertise. That’s where we can help”

Neil Clark, CEO, IHF said:

I have known David for many years, and his expertise and can-do attitude makes him the perfect person to lead the growth of IHF in Australia and the Asia Pacific Region. As we expand David can tap into the wider IHF Team who have cross-industry human factors expertise in aviation, psychology, engineering, ergonomics, and safety. This is what makes IHF’s capabilities extensive, creative, flexible, and global.

 

Facebook & Instagram outage likely caused by human error

Yesterday at around 4.30pm Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram all suffered outages, meaning more than 3 billion users could no longer access their accounts. Rumour has it, it was caused by human error. Here’s CTO of Facebook Mike Schroepfer announcing the disruption:
 


 
In a lengthy statement, Facebook blamed the disruption on a “faulty configuration change”. It seems users were not being directed to the correct place by the Domain Name System (DNS) – something controlled by Facebook. This has led most analysts to conclude that human error, or more likely a sequence of errors, led to the outage.

Facebook said in a statement: “Our engineering teams have learned that configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centres caused issues that interrupted this communication.

“This disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centres communicate, bringing our services to a halt.”

Cloudflare, a DNS provider, shed further light on Twitter saying five minutes before the outage, it saw a series of updates to Facebook’s book services. This indicates that the updates inadvertently led to the outage.

How can this be prevented from happening?

Facebook will no doubt have proper procedures in place to mitigate mistakes. It will certainly use version control and have an approval process for changes to the DNS. What it may not have prepared for, was all these failing due to poor decision-making. To solve this, they should look at it through the lens of human factors.

If your business has experienced technical human errors, IHF can help. Get in touch to learn more



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