Tata Motors owned British luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover is working with Intel and Seeing Machines to develop sensing technology that monitors the driver's face and eyes to reduce distracted and drowsy driving. Just so you know, Seeing Machines is a global leader in the development of computer vision related technologies that help machines understand people by tracking and interpreting human faces and eyes.
At the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Seeing Machines demonstrated its Driver Monitor System (DMS) in a Jaguar F-type prototype that has been developed jointly with Intel at JLR's new R&D facility in Portland, Oregon.
Coming to the technology, DMS uses attention-monitoring sensors in the dashboard to detect eye and facial movements to check if the driver has become inattentive for some reason. Interestingly, it can also understand the state of the driver in real world conditions, including bright sunlight and if the driver is wearing glasses or sunglasses.
Nick Langdale-Smith, Vice President, Seeing Machines, said: "The algorithm we have developed for DMS has the potential to seamlessly enable a host of safety and autonomous driving features and reduce the potential for accidents caused by the driver not paying attention. DMS is unique because it is the only driver monitoring system that can achieve this even if the driver is wearing shades, or in full sunshine."
In order to deliver the processing power required by the DMS system, Seeing Machines asked Intel to install hardware in the F-Type prototype based on its newest Intel Core i7 chips.
Eliott Garbus, vice president of transportation solutions at Intel said: "By choosing Intel chips to power their compute intensive technology Seeing Machines will be able to offer automakers like Jaguar Land Rover an enhanced experience for their customers in the future."
Dr Wolfgang Ziebart, Jaguar Land Rover Engineering Director, said: "The attention-monitoring technology we are showcasing at CES has huge potential for road safety. If the driver's gaze moves towards the infotainment screen or out of a side window, and the car identifies this, then the system could alert the driver to hazards earlier. DMS could even enhance settings in safety systems like Autonomous Emergency Braking, to reflect the driver's lack of attention. As the car drives up to a hazard, the brakes could engage autonomously sooner because the car realises the driver has not seen the danger ahead."
The company also informed that DMS could also help the car share information with the driver more effectively. JRL is also researching a next-generation heads-up display that could utilise the full width of the windscreen. This will help present the right information to the drier at the right time, without having to take their eyes off the road.
"Whether we are projecting a transparent view of the bonnet, or helping the driver to navigate by following a ghost car, it would be very useful to understand exactly when the driver's eyes aren't actually looking at the windscreen to see this information, so it can be repeated or shared in a different way," added Dr Ziebart.
