Tackling the impact of human error at work.
Head on.

The Problem

“Human failure contributes to almost all accidents.“

Health & Safety Executive

“90% of serious accidents & injuries can be attributed to human error”

National Safety Council

Workplace injuries remain almost unchanged year on year

Each workplace injury costs the business around $10,000 on average
For a fatality the typical cost is over $2m

The Solution

CoreTech™, from FCLabs, tackles this issue head on. It is a game-changer for workplace health, safety and wellbeing.

By tracking fluctuations in mental attention, CoreTech™’s patent pending technology

• Predicts Human Error
• Prevents Accidents & Injuries
• Improves Health & Wellbeing
• Increases Productivity and Profitability

CoreTech™ is groundbreakingly simple, low cost, operationally practical and suitable for the most challenging environments.

CoreTech™ will be available from Q4 2022 and cost as little as $0.43 (£0.33) per worker per day.

How it works

CoreTech™’s two tiny, non-invasive sensors measure blood flow and oxygenation levels in the pre-frontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for decision-making, focus and overall executive function.

Our patent pending algorithms process this data to provide the individual and/or a supervisor with:

• Real-time tracking of fluctuations in mental attention;
• Analysis of historical trends;
• Insights and alerts identifying potential increases in risk.

This allows appropriate action to be taken and decisions to be made, from simply prompting an individual to take a break to an organisation optimising shift patterns.

Targeted in-app nudges encourage lasting behavioural change, preventing burnout and improving overall health, wellbeing and productivity.

Our primary target sectors are initially challenging, high-risk work environments such as construction, engineering, oil & gas, mining and utilities.

The Science

Research has shown that fluctuating levels of mental attention provide accurate, reliable indicators of the risk of human error. Our challenge was to develop an acceptable, low cost, operationally practical, commercially viable solution to measure it.

Academic research has identified functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as potentially suitable for wearable brain imaging in challenging environments, but no work had been done to explore the commercial viability.

Unlike EEG, fNIRS is able to cope with real-world factors such movement, sweat and dirt. It is non-invasive, safe, portable and low-cost, using near-infrared light to measure haemodynamic response (blood flow and oxygenation/deoxygenation levels) in any tissue, including the brain. Using infrared light it is completely harmless; like working outside on a sunny day.

When a person is mentally attentive, neural activity is greater in the pre-frontal cortex area of the brain. This requires energy, which the body supplies by sending oxygenated blood. Our work over the last two years has demonstrated that using fNIRS to measure haemodynamic response in the pre-frontal cortex, we are able to track fluctuations in mental attention.

CoreTech™ does this with just two, non-invasive sensors, allowing the device to be groundbreakingly small and lightweight.

Tracking mental attention in real-time and applying an AI algorithm to the data allows us to provide early warning of increased propensity for errors, accidents and injuries, irrespective of the underlying cause.

About Us

FC Laboratories’ mission is to make wearable brain imaging technology a part of everyday life. Our products empower individuals, teams and businesses to perform at their best, avoid accidents and injuries and improve overall health & wellbeing.

Team

Mathew Norbury

Founder & CEO
Marketing & advertising agency founder. Global campaigns with some of the world’s biggest brands. Mentoring and consultant CMO roles with ambitious start-ups and established businesses.
Ronis Perdios

Product Design & Manufacturing
Multi-disciplined industrial product designer; experience managing the entire product design process, from initial strategy through to full production.
David Moore

Head of Engineering
Full stack embedded systems engineer with a focus on wearables, IoT and creative technologies. Former academic from the University of Leeds School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering.
Kevin Boyd

Business Development
Over 20 years of business & product development experience in the Connected Worker space. Vice-President Business Development for ecom Instruments GmbH. Most recently in the Connected Safety space advising end users and wearable technology businesses.
Emily Stanyer

Psychology/Neuroscience
A Medical Research Council-funded PhD student in neuroscience, King’s College London. Interdisciplinary background with expertise in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, biomedical science and neuroscience.
Andy Low

Behavioural Psychology & Neuroscience
Over 15 years of business management experience, with a recent focus on health and safety consulting. Completing MSc in Psychology at University of Stirling 2022, specialising in behavioural psychology and neuroscience.