Taking your eyes off the road to fiddle with the radio, navigation system, air conditioner or mobile phone can have catastrophic consequences. But with longer working hours, busy family lifestyles and long commutes sitting in cars stuffed with more and more computerised paraphernalia, Matthew Beecham asks if we are being driven to distraction.
I spy with my little eye camera
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According to Britain’s Automobile Association, falling asleep at the wheel accounts for 20% of all major road accidents. In the US, government figures indicate that as many as 31% of fatal heavy truck accidents are due to sleepiness.
A university spin-off company, Seeing Machines worked with Volvo to develop a new system that warns drivers when they are becoming drowsy or not paying enough attention to the road ahead. Called Facelab, the system uses two dash-mounted spy cameras linked up to eye tracking technology. The cameras monitor the position of the driver’s facial features such as the eyes, ears, nose and chin. It then calculates where each eye should be and looks for their whites and irises. By measuring how elliptical the irises look compared to how they appear in a computer model of the eye, it calculates the driver’s angle of gaze. Drivers who are about to drop off show characteristic blinking patterns, so Facelab tracks the frequency of blinking to detect fatigue and boredom. If sunglasses obscure the eyes, the system uses other stored facial data to work out where the driver is looking. The system is therefore capable of tracking the face when the head is quickly turned of when the face is partially obscured. Even the eyebrows and corners of the mouth can be tracked to determine facial expression. The set-up takes five minutes and involves using the software to select the tracking points on the face. This requires five snapshot s of the head, selecting a number of reference and feature locations.
The partners believe their system is head and shoulders above competitor designs, which often involve clumsy headgear or can’t work in a real time environment. “All methods to date have suffered from major difficulties in measuring head movements and often track the eye movements only,” said Trent Victor, project manager at Volvo Technological Development in Goteborg, Sweden. “Our new method is the best on the market and we believe it has extremely high potential in several areas of research, particularly in our specialised area of ergonomics and traffic safety. As a vehicle manufacturer, we want to know more about how the driver’s gaze moves around in the surroundings, also how he or she looks at the various on-board controls and displays. For example, the risk of accident will be increased if the driver has to look at the radio too long when changing stations.”
Based in the Australian National University in Canberra, Seeing Machines was set up to commercially develop a new type of human-machine interface, conceived by the University’s Research School of Information Sciences and Engineering
Are we being driven to distraction?
Ford Motor Co has opened a high-tech driving simulator laboratory to study driver workload and distraction issues related to the computerised paraphernalia that are used in modern cars. The new $10m facility will allow researchers to measure a driver’s ability to cope with common traffic situations while using mobile phones and twiddling with navigation systems. Ford’s so-called VIRTTEX, an acronym of Virtual Test Track Experiment, works by using a bank of computers to create a virtual driving environment. Participants get to sit behind the wheel of a Ford Taurus firmly bolted to the simulator. During a simulated drive, researchers record the driver’s ability to cope with an array of traffic situations while using in-car electronic equipment. In addition to collecting vehicle data on steering, speed control and braking, researchers record the driver’s hand, eye and foot movement.
The simulator dome houses five projectors – three for the forward view and two for the rear – that rotate with the dome providing a 300 degree computer-generated view of the road. The images are accompanies with engine and wind noise to make the experience that little more realistic. The vehicle in the simulator sits on a moving platform that can simulate most driving conditions. “The simulator gives us control over the car and weather conditions,” said Jeff Greenberg, staff technical specialist and chief of VIRTTEX at Ford’s research labs. “It won’t replace real-world testing, but the simulator provides us with the ability to have non-professional drivers evaluate certain devices before anything is finalised.”
Figure 1 – Ford’s VIRTTEX
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According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there were 37,043 fatal crashes in the US during 1999. Inattention was recorded as a driver-related factor in 3,823 of these crashes. Crashes involving drivers using hand-held cell phones have raised concerns about the driver distraction issue, compelling some states to call for restrictions on their use. Although the NHTSA agency does not have legal power to issue a federal rule that can stop drivers from using cell phones, it can recommend the Congress to put pressure on states to restrict cell phone use by threatening to divert road construction funds. It can also insist that voice rather than text should operate navigation systems. On 21st June 2001, the New York senate approved a proposal to ban hand-held cell phones while driving, after polls showed that New Yorkers are in favour of such a measure. If approved, New York would become the first state in the nation to adopt such a measure, with thirty-nine other states considering similar laws
Although a patchwork of laws aimed at preventing driver distraction will go some way to reducing the death toll, perhaps a better solution is to accelerate the development and installation of so-called workload managers in vehicles, i.e. systems that can detect when the driver is being driven to distraction. Perhaps by combining Seeing Machines’ novel spy camera device with known navigation technology, a workload system could detect a driver’s reaction at a busy T-junction, disengage the mobile phone, turn the radio down and prompt her to look in certain directions. On the flipside, perhaps this type of technology may encourage some people to drive for longer without taking a break, confident in the belief that big brother technology will alert them to potential dangers.
Just-auto new tech bytes
But some drivers can become distracted by all sorts of things going on around them, not just mobile phones and sat-nav systems. Ford says its SecureCar technology can detect children trapped in car boots or unintentionally left in the cabin. The system uses an electronic micro-accelerometer, a small microprocessor and some clever software to detect minute vibrations of heartbeat anywhere within the vehicle. The system will alert the driver to a child, or anyone else for that matter, left inside the vehicle when it is parked and locked. After a brief delay, the system will sound the horn if it detects anyone. For those trapped in the boot, Ford uses a sensor to measure the concentration of carbon dioxide inside the boot area. If this is too high, the system will sound the horn or open the boot lid. Figure 2 – Ford’s SecureCar system
Windscreen wiper boffins at Bosch have come up with an ‘all-new’ wiper blade. The German group’s Aerotwin features a flat, aerodynamic design to improve the driver’s view and reduce wind noise. Figure 3 – Bosch’s Aerotwin wiper
The Internet has brought together people from all walks of life, trading goods, exchanging ideas and sharing information. Now it’s the turn of scrap yard dealers. The National Salvage Group has rounded up more than 40 breakers’ yards in the UK, providing links to their websites. If you’re looking for that elusive car part, best visit www.nsg.ltd.uk.
Muth Mirror Systems has introduced a brake module to enhance its Signal Mirror safety system. A solid red chevron signal appears in both side mirrors when the brakes are applied. A flashing signal appears in the corresponding mirror when the indicator is switched on. Flashing chevrons appear in both mirrors when the hazard lights are on. The signals create an extra alert for following drivers. Figure 4 – Muth’s mirror
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