The collaboration will see GE Mining's Collision Avoidance Systems (CAS), which provides proximity protection for vehicles, equipment and personnel, integrate Optalert's algorithm covering driver performance, thus improving safety for heavy vehicle drivers.

"Effectively, that means our quantifiable drowsiness score can help regulate the tolerance of collision avoidance, so if a driver is less alert, the distance allowed for collision avoidance would be increased," Optalert chief executive Scott Coles said.

"This means a greater layer of safety and protection for heavy vehicle drivers and it also highlights a significant industry change, with scientifically-proven drowsiness detection now considered an important component of safety monitoring in mining.

"Optalert's technology concentrates on the driver, not just their behaviour, and can detect when a person is more at risk of becoming a drowsy driver, rather than wake a person who has fallen asleep.

"No other technology working in this space is able to measure drowsiness with any objective accuracy," Coles claimed.