Reporters work at the office of Hushang a Mandarin language weekly newspaper in Islamabad, June 9, 2017. Reuters/Caren Firouz
New York: To track level of alertness during work, a team of researchers has developed a tool that tracks alertness by measuring pupil size, captured through a burst of photographs taken every time users unlock their smartphones.
The findings, published in the journal ACM Digital Library, showed that the pupil-scanning reliably predicted alertness.
“Since our alertness fluctuates, if we can find a pattern it will be very useful to manage and schedule our day,” said lead author Vincent W S Tseng from the Cornell University in New York.
When people are alert, the sympathetic nervous system causes the pupils to dilate to make it easier to take in information.
When they’re drowsy, the parasympathetic nervous system causes the pupils to contract. Understanding alertness patterns could be helpful to people in many kinds of workplaces, Tseng added.
