Smart steering wheel prevents accidents by waking up sleepy drivers

Many accidents - especially early in the day or late in the night - are caused by sleepy drivers. Now, there is a technology to prevent this from happening. A unique safety innovation for automobiles, appropriately called the 'Smart Steering Safety Wheel' has been developed by a firm called Hoffmann-Krippner.

The firm has developed a special sensor which goes into the rim of the steering wheel which recognizes when someone is dozing off or falling asleep while driving. The car can then be programmed to send an alert or to buzz the driver to wake up.  The sensor also can be customized to have up to ten “hot spots” locations that can be programmed on the steering wheel to provide various functions.

In cooperation with Guttersberg Consulting,  the firm has announced that  its innovative SensoFoil sensing technology now can measure sensitivity in addition to position.  By using enhanced SensoFoil to measure pressure, car and vehicle manufacturers can add an extra level of safety to their steering wheels.

During normal driving, the operator is constantly moving their hands on the steering wheel, changing pressure as the fingers grip the wheel. However, by using Hoffmann-Krippner’s SensoFoil inside the steering wheel, the vehicle can now sense if the driver’s hands are now longer moving  – if the operator has fallen asleep with their hands on the wheel or if their hands are no longer on the wheel. This can trigger the correct safety protocol to either wake up the driver or to implement corrective measures.

Traffic experts claim that about 25% of all accidents are caused by extreme fatigue while driving. This makes nodding-off, also referred to as “micro-sleep“, in combination with heart attacks, as  the leading cause of accidents, exceeding the number of accidents caused by alcohol and drugs.

Once alerted by the Smart Steering Wheel, the car can try to wake the driver or take over control and steer the vehicle to a safe stop along the road. In case of medical emergency, the car could even drive itself to the closest medical emergency center while sending out an alert to the appropriate authorities.

The sensor can also be programmed for pressure in certain locations. This can be used in a vehicle to control various location, emergency, entertainment or communication systems. This same feature can be used in game controllers, aircraft, etc., as an economical way to add additional programmable capabilities to a controller or joystick device without the need for extra buttons or dials.