Favorite Technical report: Proposal to install Health Monitoring sensors in vehicle

For the research project that we have conducted, the content that I would like to share with you guys that I feel could represent our report is the following:

Background


The importance of one’s health has always been a priority, and studies have shown that a healthy mind and body leads to a positive mind and clearer decision-making. According to Transparent Market Research (n.d.), ‘automotive active health monitoring systems have gained significant popularity and the trend is set to continue during the forecast period’. It is demonstrated that drivers with health problems or illnesses have a higher chance of getting into a traffic accident and suffering (or causing) several injuries. Another known factor that has contributed largely to traffic accidents is fatigue, driver fatigue was associated with very poor/poor self-rating of quality of sleep, having an additional part-time job, drinking three or more caffeinated drinks daily, and driving more than 10 hours a day (Lim & Chia, 2015). Fatigue causes the driver to be unaware of his surroundings, drifting in/out of the lane, loss of concentration, and microsleep. According to an article published by the World Health Organisation (2018), there were 1.35 million road traffic deaths globally in the year 2016. Southeast Asia had the second-highest casualty rate at 20.7 deaths per population size of 100,000.

In Singapore, a recent road accident occurred, where the lorry driver had collapsed at the wheel due to a heart condition (Lam, 2020). In an article by Pham (2018), another accident that happened in 2018 at Quang Nam, Vietnam, which killed 13 passengers on board the bus was due to the driver’s inability to concentrate on the road as he felt drowsy. Based on the case studies mentioned, two main topics were decided, drowsiness and heart conditions.

Taking into consideration that the driver’s condition may change over time and the current generation of cars are only fitted with sensors that can monitor external activity such as the condition of the car and the proximity between objects, to overcome this issue, an idea of installing sensors on the car seat and dashboard to monitor the driver’s condition was then brought up.

The installation of sensors in cars will enable the driver to be better informed of their vitals, and be able to take precautionary measures such as visiting a doctor or taking a short rest if the system detects any unusual activity. If the driver is on the move, the car will be able to react in response to the situation to help the driver.

Problem Statement

An ideal car should be fitted with health monitoring sensors. However, the sensors present in cars today do not have the capability to monitor the health condition of the driver. The goal is to introduce electrocardiogram (ECG) and drowsiness sensors to monitor the driver’s condition in cars.


and another line that I like is:

'Drivers might be unaware that they are not feeling well when they are driving, and to close this gap, the sensor will be triggered and send a warning to the driver to inform them of the trigger cause'

As shown from the text above, we can tell how impactful sensor is, to help us to achieve our goal of a reduced amount of accidents from occurring, by alerting the driver before an accident could occur.

Comments

Post a Comment