Many people recognize the dangers of driving while intoxicated and take measures to prevent it, but too many forget the dangers of driving while tired. Falling asleep at the wheel contributes to over 100,000 accidents every year. Many companies have worked on devices to try to prevent drivers from falling asleep, including alarms that ring when a driver drifts out of his or her lane. A new smart device is set to change the way that cars can prevent accidents due to drivers falling asleep at the wheel.

A Significant Problem

Drowsy driving is a dangerous activity; however, the majority of Americans admit to have driven while drowsy. The National Sleep foundation conducted a study in 2005, entitled Sleep in America, and found that 60 percent of adult drivers have driven while drowsy and 37 percent have fallen asleep at the wheel.

About 13 percent of those who have fallen asleep say this occurs at least once a month. About 4 percent have admitted that their drowsy driving has led to an accident. According to data from a 2009 study by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 4.2 percent of adults in 19 states and the District of Columbia reported having fallen asleep while driving in the past 30 days.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 100,000 police-reported crashers are directly related to driver fatigue. These cause about 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries, and $12.5 billion dollars in monetary losses. However, these numbers could be even higher since there is no set way to test if an accident is due to driver fatigue. Currently, it is based on self-reporting, which is unreliable. In Europe and Australia, where there are more consistent crash reporting, drowsy driving makes up for 10 to 30 percent of all vehicle accidents.

The Development of Harken

In order to combat this global problem, a research branch of the European Union funded a consortium study at the Biomechanics Institute (IBV) in Valencia Spain. The team members created the Heart and Respiration In-Car Embedded Non-Intrusive Sensors (Harken) system to monitor the status of the driver. It uses seatbelt sensors and seat cover sensors to measure the heart rate and respiratory pace respectively. These features are similar to what many wearable tech devices now feature that allow people to track their exercise and sleep habits.

What Harken Does

The device is made form smart materials that seamlessly integrate into the seat belt and seat covers. The data is processed in real time in a hidden signal processing unit underneath the seat. When the data from the sensors reveal a person is entering a sleep mode, an alarm will go off to alert the driver. By monitoring the real time data, the device can show when the body is in the early stages of fatigue and alert the driver prior to dangerous situations, such as lane drifting.

The device provides an innovative solution due to its ability to measure the variables of the driver by the intelligent materials, including detecting the heart beat and respiratory activity, while simultaneously filtering out the vibrations and body movements caused by the vehicle. The device can calculate the relevant data to recognize future fatigue or sleep.

The Future of Harken

Harken has recently successfully completed a closed track testing, and the next step is to test it in real world traffic conditions. There is no firm launch date, but the team hopes that after a successful testing stage, the device will be available on the market soon.

This device is one of many being created to help make driving safer. Many companies are working on self-driving cars to remove the human element from driving entirely. However, until then devices such as Harken can help to mitigate some of the dangers of driving.