Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have designed a soft autonomous device that attaches to the eyelid and monitors eye movements to determine a person's fatigue level. NotebookCheck reports this, citing Tech Xplore.

This device, detailed in the scientific journal Nature, combines a new type of sensor with an artificial intelligence algorithm that analyzes data in real time.

Test results show that the measurement accuracy is 96.4%. The technology is based on the giant magnetoelastic effect discovered in 2021 by the same team. This effect allows a polymer composite to convert mechanical pressure from eyelid motion into a magnetic signal, and then into an electrical signal.

The sensor's design includes a layer of silicone rubber embedded with micromagnets and a thin conductive gold coil applied to a thermoplastic elastomer. The device is stretchable, waterproof, and designed for direct wear on the eyelid. It converts eye movements into high-precision signals processed by a neural network.

The algorithm analyzes six blinking parameters to determine the user's fatigue level. The developers note that the discovery of the magnetoelastic effect in soft systems has significant scientific potential that still needs to be fully explored.