Medicine and aerospace technology can reduce accidents

The UK-based team is also looking at innovations that would reduce the amount of time the driver's eyes are off the road while driving, and how to communicate with the driver via pulses and vibrations through the accelerator pedal.

"We believe some of the technologies currently being used in aerospace and medicine could help improve road safety and enhance the driving experience," Dr Wolfgang Epple, Jaguar Land Rover director of research and technology, said.

Reading brainwaves

The basis of Jaguar Land Rover's Mind Sense research is to see if a car could effectively read the brainwaves that indicate a driver is beginning to daydream, or feeling sleepy, while driving. By continually monitoring which type of brainwave is dominant, an on-board computer could potentially assess whether a driver is focused, daydreaming, sleepy, or distracted.

"If brain activity indicates a daydream or poor concentration, then the steering wheel or pedals could vibrate to raise the driver's awareness and re-engage them with driving," added Dr Epple. "If Mind Sense does not detect a surge in brain activity following the car displaying a warning icon or sound, then it could display it again, or communicate with the driver in a different way, to ensure the driver is made aware of a potential hazard."

Jaguar Land Rover is investigating a method already used by NASA to develop a pilot's concentration skills and also by the US bobsleigh team to enhance concentration and focus. This detects brainwaves through the hands via sensors embedded in the steering wheel. Because the sensing is taking place further away from the driver's head, software is used to amplify the signal and filter out the pure brainwave from any background 'noise'.

Well-being of driver

Jaguar Land Rover is assessing how a vehicle could monitor the well-being of the driver using a medical-grade sensor embedded in the seat of a Jaguar XJ. The sensor, which was originally developed for use in hospitals, has been adapted for in-car use and detects vibrations from the driver's heartbeat and breathing.

Monitoring the physical health of the driver could not only detect the onset of sudden and serious illness that may incapacitate the driver, but also allow the car to monitor driver stress levels. This would then allow the car to help reduce stress, for example by changing mood lighting, audio settings and climate control.

Jaguar Land Rover is also working on new technologies that increase the speed and efficiency of the interaction between the driver and the infotainment screen. The aim is to reduce driver distraction by minimising the amount of time the driver's eyes are on the screen.

"The driver will instinctively look at the infotainment screen or dashboard when pressing buttons to select navigation, music or the telephone. Our research is looking at how we could take a current infotainment screen and increase the speed and efficiency of this interaction to minimise the time the driver's eyes are away from the road and their hand is off the steering wheel," says Dr Epple.

The Predictive Infotainment Screen prototype uses cameras embedded in the car to track the driver's hand movements and this enables the system to predict which button the driver intends to press. This allows successful button selection to take place in mid-air, which means users wouldn't have to touch the screen itself.

Haptic accelerator pedal

Haptics could also be used to communicate with the driver through the accelerator pedal to increase the speed of response and to ensure the correct action is taken. To create these sensations in the accelerator pedal, an actuator sits at the top of the pedal arm and allows for vibrations or pulses to be passed through to the foot of the driver. The technology also uses a torque motor, which can create resistance in the pedal feel.

This resistance could be used to notify the driver that they are pushing the accelerator through a speed limit. Alternatively, if you were crawling along in traffic a timely warning through the accelerator could prevent you bumping into the car in front.