Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
is more complex to monitor, mainly due to a variety of modes that the person
may exhibit, depending on for example, a stress moment. The human behaviour
may vary on an individual basis, including the effect of fatigue or decreased con-
centration on driving behaviour. But indeed the background reason may be of
an underlying nature. The main cause can be related to the very highly complex
technology needed to monitor the driver's behaviour and conditions, e.g., moni-
toring of the driver's eye activities that could have a tendency to affect the driver's
behaviour.
There are, however, technical solutions available on the market that support
the driver. A driver alert control system that detects the driver's behaviour, may
consist of a camera for positioning the car on the road, in combination with a num-
ber of other sensors measuring the car behaviour and a control unit to estimate the
driving path. The camera, normally continuously measures the distance between
the car and the road lane markings. Additional information from the sensors de-
tects the car's movements, e.g., acceleration, pedals and external parameters, e.g.,
side wind and road conditions. The computer then stores the information and cal-
culates whether the driver is exihibiting an unstructured risk to lose control of the
vehicle. If the risk is assessed as high, the driver is alerted via an audible signal
and an additional text message appears on the car's information panel.
The illustrated alerting system that is now commercially built in vehicles is a
first generation of complementary systems aiming to provide essential information
to the driver. The supportive systems will most likely have a strong impact on the
effectiveness of driving and most likely will also provide a major effect on reduc-
ing accidents and human suffering. But this problem-solving device may give rise
to subsequent phenomenon that is not on the agenda today. An important ques-
tion arises whether the driver may lower the general safety level and rely more on
a system supporting the driver, than her own cognitive and sensing power. How-
ever, the alert system is, as just mentioned, a supportive system to the driver and
is in no sense controlling the situation. The driver is still in charge of the situation
and the sound/text information is consideredtoalertthedrivertomakeaproper
action, for example by braking the vehicle. The conclusion drawn in this type of
symbiotic partnership is, the more sophisticated the system behaves, the more pas-
sive the driver becomes. We may experience drivers who trust that the system will
take care of safety and will as a consequence drive more carelessly knowing that
the system will make the expected alerts when neccessary.
The following question seems to arise as the technical consequences of design-
ing more sophisticated and individual adapted artefacts in conjunction with the
human perception.
In the long run, a continuous degradation of the human senses may occur, as we no
longer have the need to actively make use of the sensing skills and strengthen our abil-
ities to take care of our own capacity and by that it also means restricting the percep-
tual limitations, unless we are not activating our expectations onto new and adventures
experiences.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search