A University of Technology, Sydney-developed system giving early warning of driver fatigue by reading the brainwaves of drivers has moved a step closer to use in vehicles with investment from the European Commission.

Dr Sara Lal and Professor Ashley Craig from the Faculty of Science lead one of only two non-European research teams to win funding under a 17 million Euro program to help perfect new technologies for monitoring stress, vigilance and sleep/wakefulness.

The UTS team has already developed and patented software that will trigger three-stage warnings of impending drowsiness based on changes in brainwave activity. The European investment will push forward the development and field testing of hardware to put the fatigue countermeasure into cars and trucks and other areas prone to fatigue, like the military, aviation, mining and railways.

"We expect to have a prototype ready by mid next year," Dr Lal said. "The European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme on Research, Technological Development and Demonstration is providing us with $100,000 Australian in direct funding and in the order of $2 million of in-kind support, such as access to data sources and the work being done by other partners."

Dr Lal said the European researchers are working in such areas as the miniaturisation and improvement of sensors and wireless telemetry, which could speed up the process of making the brainwave-based fatigue monitor a practical reality.

"There is very strong European interest in developing technology to combat the problem of driver fatigue," Dr Lal said. "Essentially, we now are collaborating with our potential future commercial partners."

The UTS team was invited to apply for the so-called "SENSATION" Program by Coordinator Dr Evangelos Bekiaris, Principal Researcher of the Center for Research and Technology Hellas/Hellenic Institute of Transport in Greece. Dr Bekiaris made the approach after seeing published findings by Dr Lal and Professor Craig.

The UTS work, already backed by a National Health and Medical Research Council Research Fellowship and an ARC Industry Linkage grant, is based on Electroencephalogram (EEG) data taken from professional and non-professional drivers who have participated in driver simulator studies.

The researchers first isolated the changes in brainwave activity that marked reduced alertness and transition to fatigue and then demonstrated that the changes could be used to trigger a series of warnings.

Dr Lal said a number of other methods of detecting driver fatigue are being pursued by researchers around the world, but EEG is the most promising in terms of its accuracy and the very early warning signs of fatigue that it can pick up.

The NSW Roads and Traffic Authority says that fatigue is a factor in at least 20 per cent of the State's fatal crashes.