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Beyond Limits: SOBEREYE’s Vision for Modernizing Workplace Impairment Testing

Introduction

As more and more U.S. states legalize medical and/or adult-use cannabis, employers must balance several competing requirements. They are understandably concerned about cannabis use and on-the-job safety. Workplace accidents are expensive with the average employer spending about $120,000 on every workplace injury incident. Along with the financial toll, businesses face reputational damage, lower productivity, and, most importantly, the human cost of lives damaged or lost. Enter the burgeoning industry of impairment detection technologies (IDTs) for impairment detection for chemical factors, such as legal or illegal substances; physical factors including fatigue; and psychosocial factors, i.e., stress.

The National Safety Council defines impairment: “The inability to function normally or safely because of any number of critical factors—from chemical factors such as legal and illicit drugs, physical factors such as fatigue or certain mental conditions, as well as social factors like stress, or other mental distress. Each of these factors and more can present a fitness for duty, concern and impact, employee health, safety, and well-being.”

To meet the growing demand for workplace solutions, there’s a burgeoning industry of impairment detection devices (IDTs) like cognitive testing apps, brain-imaging caps (in development), and full-body scans aim to flag compromised faculties before any damage is done, but not all high-tech solutions are portable, cost-effective, or intuitive for employees to use. One ingenious and user-friendly IDT is SOBEREYE, an AI-driven startup from California, which measures the Pupillary Light Reflex (PLR), an autonomic response of the eye to bright light that indicates nominal function of both the somatic processing (incoming signals from the periphery) and the central nervous system response.

SOBEREYE patented its approach utilizing a smartphone and an opaque enclosure to make accurate PLR measurements to detect impairment. Everyone in the workplace shares the same goal: to get work done safely. The years invested in developing SOBEREYE's technology are justified by the profound impact of saving even a single life.

Download Beyond Limits: SOBEREYE’s Vision for Modernizing Workplace Impairment Testing