Edinburgh Trams and IHF to launch FOCUS+ Pilot

The name FOCUS+ has been selected for the solution developed as part of the Driver Innovation Safety Challenge (DISC) project. This new name reflects the aim of DISC to deliver a secure and performant wearable technology solution able to improve the safety of drivers and mobile workers by monitoring their fatigue and wellbeing levels. DISC is being led by Edinburgh Trams with the support of UKTram and Transport for Edinburgh, and a partnership of public and private sector organisations including the City of Edinburgh Council and the Scotland CAN DO Innovation Challenge Fund.

The project is progressing well, with the delivery by IHF of the second prototype of FOCUS+ with the pilot test beginning in September.

The FOCUS+ Pilot aims to test the acceptability of the FOCUS+ design including comfort, interference with working duties of a user and to co-create with the user’s part of the solution’s design. The DISC project is built as a partnership between operators, IHF, and Edinburgh Trams to make sure that the solution created increases care for the driver, while being comfortable to wear and easy to use.

The pilot will also collect a large quantity of data to “train” the FOCUS+ algorithms through machine learning. Participants to the pilot are currently being recruited within Edinburgh Trams staff.

About Edinburgh Trams

Edinburgh Trams is the award winning operator of the city’s tramway with a vision to be an integral part of the future success of Edinburgh and the Lothians by providing world-class, environmentally-friendly and socially-inclusive transport.