Aware that drowsiness and inattention at the wheel are two of the most common causes of road accidents, Saab, a Swedish car manufacturing company, has developed a Driver Attention Warning System. This technology has been designed to alert the driver of detected drowsiness or inattention, through the use of a combination of text and voice messages, or vibrations in the seat cushion.
According to studies, though only 20% of the accidents are caused by sleeplessness, death cases has been greatly affected by sleep-related incidents that turns out to be three times worse than other accidents. Researchers have presumed that the major cause is the inability of the drivers to swerve or apply their brakes in such state. Over 300 people are killed annually in UK as a result of drivers falling asleep at the wheel. Those figures are what Saab Driver Attention Warning System intends to reduce.
The Driver Attention Warning System, unlike other similar systems, does not depend on measuring an erratic change in the steered direction of the vehicle. Instead of focusing on the immediate consequences, the device detects the onset of drowsiness or inattention.
Two miniature infra-red cameras are utilized by the system. One is installed at the base of the driver's A-pillar while the other is found in the center of the main fascia. Both are focused on the driver's eyes. Software analyzes the image from the cameras. It deploys a series of alerts if the pattern of the eye-lid movement detects an onset of drowsiness, or if the driver is not looking at the road ahead.
In detecting drowsiness, the Driver Attention Warning System measures the driver's rate of eye blinking. Three different warnings are initiated if the cameras detected a pattern of longer eye-lid closures, which mean potential onset of drowsiness.
The cameras can also monitor the driver's eye-ball and head movement. A timer starts counting as soon as the system detects that the driver's gaze moved away from the "primary attention zone", the central part of the windscreen in front of the driver. Vibration on the driver's seat cushion is triggered when the driver's eyes and head fail to return to the "straight ahead" position within two seconds.
The infra-red image processing also has the ability to detect if the driver keeps its peripheral vision of the road ahead. Consequently, it allows quite a longer time to elapse prior to activating the seat cushion vibration.
The development of this technology has taken Saab further in its real-life safety philosophy more than it has improved its and other premium parts.
As part of a development programme named Intelligent Vehicle Safety Systems (IVSS) supported by the Swedish government and national Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI), Saab will be having the system installed in a Saab 9-3 Sport Wagon through Human Vehicle Integration team at GME Engineering in Trollhattan, Sweden.
According to Arne Nabo, head of the Human Vehicle Integration team specializing in driver ergonomic and managing the interface with in-car 'infotainment' systems for Saab cars, "It is a fact that many drivers do not stop and get out of the car if they are feeling drowsy. So we are now trying to help drivers to help themselves."
"This system also helps prevent a dangerous habit we call 'cognitive capturing'. For example, the driver can become too absorbed in searching for a favourite CD, or programming pre-sets into the radio," he explained.
The Road and Transport Research Institute in Sweden with supervise an eight-month field trial programme, which will include the test on the Saab 9-3 SportWagon. The vehicle will be equipped with a wireless GPRS 3G modem, which will download data to a web server at Linkoping University each minute.
The test will be part of the development and validation process in preparation for the installation of the Driver Attention Warning System in Saab's future cars.
