The Insurance Journal had an interesting article today regarding a new fatigue tracking device for truckers to let them know when it's time to pull over and take a snooze.

The device was designed by Richard Grace from the Carnegie Mellon University; according to IJ, it's shaped a bit like a web cam and sits on the trucker's dashboard. Powered by the trucker's cigarette lighter, it uses infrared technology to measure blinking. Yes, blinking.

The device measures how long the driver blinks and keeps his or her eyes shut—the first signal of the onset of fatigue. As the trucker's blinking increases, the tracking device beeps loudly, and keeps beeping for every second that the trucker's eyes are closed, signaling that it's time to pull over for a cat nap.

This isn't such a bad idea if you ask me. Although it reminds me of a similar device that my grandfather used to have, only instead of sitting on the dash, it wrapped around your ear and beeped unbelievably loud if you dropped your head to your chest. It was so disturbing, I imagine that device led to more heart attacks than eliminated car crashes. Looks like Grace's device is a step up. :)

What do you think of these devices? Should they be made mandatory? Take a look at the Insurance Journal article and let me know what you think.