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This camera monitors a driver's eyes and issues an alert if he becomes drowsy.
A warning system alerts drivers to lower speed limits. |
By MICHAEL ZITZ
Let's say, hypothetically, you're driving through a sleepy little town like Tappahannock on a Tuesday night. No one else is on the road.
You're just cruising along, going the speed limit--at least you think you are. But there's been a sudden drop in that speed limit from 45 miles per hour to 35. This is all hypothetical.
And, hypothetically, there's a cop sitting in the dark just on the other side of the 35-mph speed-limit sign. Waiting
You're still going 45. You see blue lights. You pull over.
You're drinking Diet Pepsi, à la Grandma, not Wild Turkey, à la Mel Gibson. But the next thing you know, you're surrounded by three police cars with blue lights flashing to beat the band while the first police officer writes you a speeding ticket for going 10 miles an hour too fast. Hypothetically.
Siemens VDO has developed electronic technology it hopes to integrate into near-future car navigation systems to prevent that sort of thing from happening. Not a radar gun intended to help drivers break the law, but instead a tiny digital camera that reads road signs and warns drivers if they don't slow down when the speed limit does.
Brad Warner, a Siemens VDO spokesman in Auburn Hills, Mich., said in a telephone interview that the sign-reading technology is part of the company's "zero accidents" goal.
When a driver is not responding correctly to a sign, an alarm sounds, and a heads-up display flashes on the car's windshield at a 30-degree angle from the driver's vision, in a position that doesn't block the view of the road, but doesn't require your eyes to be shifted away from traffic. It seems to be suspended in mid-air above the front bumper, so the driver's eyes don't have to refocus.
It has other safety applications, warning if you are failing to slow down when cars in front of you have, and reading lanes on the road and curbs to alert drivers if they are beginning to weave.
Warner said the system can be optionally tied into cruise control to cause the car to slow down automatically in dangerous situations.
The Siemens sign-recognition technology was unveiled this week at the General Motors-hosted "Convergence 2006" automobile electronics show in Detroit, where Warner demonstrated it.
It's part of a "pro.pilot" package Siemens VDO hopes Detroit car-makers will be offering consumers as an option in three to five years.
Another feature is a small, infrared, digital camera that watches the driver's eyes and issues warnings if he or she becomes drowsy. It first causes the driver's seat to vibrate, then, if that doesn't do the trick, it issues an alarm tone or a voice warning.
The drowsiness warning system was demonstrated at IFA, the world's largest consumer electronics show, which was held last month in Germany. The Berlin-based trade show has an office in Fredericksburg.
Bridgette LaRose, a Siemens VDO spokeswoman who demonstrated the drowsiness detection device at the German show, said in a phone interview: "It can evaluate the driver's blinking pattern and the duration of eyelid movement. The system can differentiate between a driver who's alert and attentive and drowsy."
Or distracted. It also alerts the driver if he or she is looking in the mirror for too long, or spending too much time worrying about kids in the back seat.
A current driver warning system offered as an option by BMW costs about $1,000, but Warner said Siemens VDO isn't sure how much its more advanced package might cost as an option in 2009.
Advanced electronics is the fasting-growing segment in the automotive industry.
In keeping with that, the theme of this week's show in Detroit was "Convergence Reinvents the Automobile."
GM demonstrated Vehicle-to-Vehicle technology this week. It combines an antenna, a computer, a GPS receiver and a transponder to allow vehicles to communicate with other vehicles on or off the road for up to a quarter of a mile.
It can detect vehicles outside the driver's field of vision and sound alerts to dangerous situations.
To reach MICHAEL ZITZ:
Email: mikez@freelancestar.com
