Inventing the future

WHEN Mugilan Muralitharan was young, his father almost killed the entire family in a near miss incident and luckily, it did not happen otherwise Mugilan wouldn't be here today to develop an antisleep device to put a stop to accidents.
"Accidents in Malaysia have been increasing over the last five years, and the second highest factor leading to it is fatigue or drowsiness. I want to come up with an invention to reduce the amount of accidents due to those reasons," the 23-year-old said.
Currently pursuing his Bachelors in Engineering, Mugilan also has his father, whom he calls his hero, to thank for inspiring him to be an inventor. His father, a technician, does not hesitate to fix or modify things at home, but Mugilan took it a step further by inventing Vizhi to save human lives.
Named after a Tamil word referring to eyes and awake, Vizhi, pronounced as "vili" detects eye behaviour and alerts drivers who are potentially falling asleep while driving. The prototype is an integration between hardware and software, and what happens is the camera is focused on the eye with commands as the output.
"I completed the first part which is the prototype. The second part is to figure out the triggering mechanism like an alarm or seat vibration to alert the driver. To completely merge the device to the vehicle, I need to do more research to ensure what I am telling you now is the best option," he said.
As the winner of the James Dyson Award (JDA), it will help Mugilan in his research and to further develop his prototype. The award is run in 22 countries and each country has its own national winner who will go to compete on the international level.
The JDA is part of the James Dyson Foundation, a charity and non-profit organisation established by the Dyson company. The foundation aims to inspire students in the science and engineering fi eld to create inventions that solve everyday problems.
"My invention solves a real life problem. Accidents due to drowsiness has been happening over a few decades, and my innovation solves that problem; maybe not to zero but it will reduce that amount," Mugilan said.
There are existing anti-sleep devices around the world, but they are mainly devices that you need to wear. Mugilan believes using eye detection is special and he has programmed a software that is intelligent and sensitive enough to detect eye behaviour. His prototype scans the eyes and produces 10 commands in one second.
Nevertheless, the prototype faces limitations for those wearing spectacles as well as during low light conditions, but Mugilan believes with further study and guidelines, these problems will be solved. He hopes to complete the device in two to three years.
"Malaysians will be receptive of this device as we are concerned about safety. I interviewed a number of drivers and a majority agreed that they would accept my device. You would feel much safer if you get into a car and see the driver using the device,” he said.