Date | Jun 23, 2016:

EVERY day, 6,300 people die around the world in occupational accidents or from work-related disease — more than 2.3-million deaths per year, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

"The human cost of this daily adversity is vast and the economic burden of poor occupational safety and health practices is estimated at 4% of global GDP each year," say ILO researchers. But for those toiling in hazardous environments — mines, wind turbines or oil rigs — wearable devices could make work safer. Helmets, watches and visors, bristling with sensors and connected via mobile or satellite transmission to supervisors and control centres, can help alert employees to hazards while keeping them focused on the job at hand.

Yet, most of the buzz around wearable technologies has been about consumer devices, such as the Apple Watch, Google Glass, or Fitbit’s wristbands.

"For many of us, when we think of wearable technology, we think in terms of gadgets aimed at the fitness market or techies who want to view text messages and weather forecasts on their watch," says Mark Homer, a vice-president at ServiceMax, a provider of cloud-based apps for technicians and engineers working in outdoor, hazardous environments.

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THE desire to monitor staff working in remote and dangerous locations is seen by many as a key driver in the creation of the elusive "killer app" that wearables will require for industries to adopt them. Take the UK oil and gas industry. "With a decline in production rates, increasing production costs, a retiring skilled workforce leaving a void of knowledge and expertise among younger colleagues, not to mention a whole host of remote and dangerous working environments, this industry is an ideal candidate for wearable tech," says Homer.

Others exploring this potential include utilities and miners, he says. The idea of wearables is gaining ground within companies.

"Wearables in hazardous environments are actually quite real today," says Annette Zimmermann, an analyst with tech research company Gartner.

"We’re seeing cases that go far beyond pilots in several regions."

One device that has caught her eye is the SmartCap, which contains technology that measures brain activity. Information about how tired workers are can be seen by them on screens and is transmitted to their supervisors. Companies using SmartCap include miner Rio Tinto, which aims to prevent accidents by measuring truck drivers’ fatigue levels.

Barriers still hinder the wider adoption of health and safety-related wearables. Brent Blum, an expert in wearable technology at consultants Accenture, says device battery life is an issue, as is screen size. "Some tasks are better suited for desktops with large screens, others for wearables with tiny screens." Businesses will need to expand wireless networks to ensure WiFi connectivity for remote workers, he says, and attend to employee-privacy concerns.

"Companies should expand corporate security measures to cover wearables, which can be thought of as mobile devices at the edge, so that they’re protected against data leaks," he says.

Businesses also need to invest in back-end infrastructures capable of processing the information sent by "chatty" wearables for analysis.

Wearables themselves are just the "things" in the so-called "internet of things", which connects previously unlinked objects.

Fujitsu, for example, is testing a wearables range including head-mounted displays, wristbands and badges that can detect falls, measure levels of drowsiness and heat exhaustion, or simply pinpoint the wearer’s location.

These use the company’s Ubiquitousware package, which converts transmitted data into useful information, according to James Maynard, a director for global internet of things at Fujitsu.

US insurer AIG this year invested an undisclosed sum in Human Condition Safety (HCS), a maker of wearable devices that monitor employees in factories, construction sites and other high-risk workplaces. The company is running a pilot project at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team, to simulate conditions at construction sites and large venues and to test the wearables it is developing.

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COMPANIES and insurers have a hard-nosed commercial interest in adopting technology that reduces the risk of injuries in hazardous locations. But there is a moral purpose too, argues HCS chief executive Peter Raymond.

Wearables, he says, can keep people safe at work "and help them get home safe to their families when their shift ends".

In May, the Tata Group announced it had doubled its number of published patents over two years, from about 3,500 at the end of 2013 to 7,000 at the end of 2015. Some of these relate to wearables and, in particular, a smartwatch for factory workers. It has a two-way alarm, so the wearer can notify or be warned of dangerous situations at the push of a button. It has sensors that monitor health and environmental risks, such as heart rate and the presence of noxious gases.

The watches are being piloted by crane operators at Tata Steel in Jamshedpur, India.

Honeywell Industrial Safety is working with semiconductor producer Intel to make wearables and has demonstrated its Connected Worker product range.

Data from a self-contained breathing apparatus, a clip-on heart rate monitor and wrist-worn gesture devices are displayed remotely so that fire chiefs can anticipate risky situations and prevent man-down scenarios among firefighters.

The relationship with Intel has advanced thinking on internet of things connectivity, device-design and data-integration, according to Carl Johnson, Honeywell Industrial Safety’s president.

General Electric’s (GE’s) smart helmets tackle two problems facing the oil and gas industry: an ageing workforce and customers who demand power outages are fixed faster. The smart helmets connect field engineers directly to more experienced colleagues at headquarters, allowing the former to be guided through complex tasks by audio and video.

Engineers are equipped with two small monitors on the helmet and an iPad. These enable two-way communications, so headquarters can see exactly what the engineer in the field is seeing and share information. GE is developing smart helmets and prototypes have been tested with staff engineers.

(Source: http://www.bdlive.co.za/)