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Comm 169 Final Project
Clifford Nass
Austin Slater, Lonnie Kauppila, Austin Wilson, Dominic Jose
Sleepless Driving Narrative
Austin Slater introduces the product and its importance:
“Sleepless driving is an innovative technology that can
save live. We believe that it is not only practical to implement
our technology in cars, but a necessary safety feature
comparable to the seat belt. Driving is already a dangerous
enough activity while fully focused and aware of your
surroundings, so our argument is why shouldn’t cars be equipped
with technology that can actively monitor whether or not the
driver is fully awake and conscious.
The technology is
available and can be implemented in cars by putting sensors on
the steering wheel that can monitor heart rate, stress, brain
waves, and the activity in the cortex. All of these: heart rate,
activity in the cortex, etc, have the ability to indicate
whether or not a person is falling asleep. Our sleepless driving
initiative would also have a miniature camera installed in the
middle of the steering wheel that can detect if the drivers eyes
are beginning to remain closed for longer than a normal blink,
which is also an indication of falling asleep. We believe that,
like the seat belt, people will believe that it is an
unnecessary safety feature, but will come to realize that it can
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and will save lives. After the technology initially determines
that the driver is falling asleep, the safety features kick into
action causing the car to jolt, music to play loudly and the air
conditioning to turn on and blast cold air to wake our tired
driver. Not only will this wake the driver up temporarily, we
believe this will make the driver aware that he or she is
falling asleep while creating conditions, loud music and cold
air, to keep the driver awake for the rest of the ride.
According to the National Sleep Foundation’s poll in 2005,
about 60 percent of adult driver, approximately 168 million
people, reported having driven a vehicle within the past year
while feeling drowsy, and 37 percent, 103 million people,
reported having actually fallen asleep at the wheel. To add to
these staggering statistics 11 percent say that they fall asleep
at the wheel at least once and month, and 4 percent reported
either having an accident or having had a near accident due to
falling asleep. Our insights into this problem are unique and
innovative because we are taking the approach that our
technology can prevent these dangerous situations, instead of
believing that the burden of staying awake behind the wheel is
completely up to the driver. For people who have long commutes,
drive for long stretches at a time for work, or are taking long
road trips for leisure, this technology takes the human error
out of determining if you are too tired to drive. People will
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continue to drive when they are tired for the simple reason that
they need to get where they are going, so our approach is to
accept this fact and make the best out of the situation, which
is to make sure they do not fall asleep while driving.
Our technology does not provide a compelling solution, it
is the solution to the problem of sleeping while driving. With
this type of technology available and the statistics to back up
the fact that falling asleep while driving is a regularly
occurring problem for drivers, car companies will have to begin
to standardize this technology across all models in order to
avoid litigation. With the knowledge that this kind of
technology is feasible and able to increase driver safety, our
technology will be as ubiquitous as the seatbelt has become
today.”
Austin Wilson discusses the affordances of Sleepless Driving:
“We believe that our product will decrease the amount of
accidents that occur while driving. Sleepless driving was
created to prevent people from endangering themselves and other
people on the road. With the chance that lives will be saved, we
believe that our product will be a catalyst to other innovative
ideas in regards to the safety in driving.
Regarding our autonomous interface product, the success
gage we believe should only be measured by how many lives we are
able to save. Sleepless driving is a safety product that creates
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a safer environment for people to drive their cars. It would be
a product that car companies ultimately can purchase and install
in their models to increase the safety in future proto-types.
The use of the product should only be in emergency situations
because it is supposed to prevent people from sleeping behind
the wheel and endangering other people on the road.
The success
and goal of our product is to be effective in the critical and
dangerous moment of falling asleep while driving. If sleepless
driving is able to consistently wake people up who fall asleep
behind the wheel, then our product is successful.
With our product, we believe the best way to obtain
credibility regarding its affordance is too have car companies
vouch on the behalf Sleepless Driving’s safety and efficiency.
Due to the fatality risk of people falling asleep behind the
wheel, real life stories of people’s lives being saved from
sleepless driving will ultimately advertise the usefulness of
our product. There is no set amount of people who must own the
product to realize its affordance. Our main objective is too
create a safer driving environment for both the person driving
the car as well as the other people on the road.
Sleepless driving is not a complex product to use! The
device automatically activates when the automobile is started to
ensure that you will never fall asleep. Sleepless driving was
created for the rare occurrence that a person does in fact fall
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asleep while they are using a car. Although many people
understand the significance of being alert while driving, other
factors in people’s lives contribute to drowsiness, which can
later affect how you drive your vehicle.”
Lonnie begins his detailed explanation of the product:
“Sleepless driving is a concept that has never been touched
upon before. As individuals who have spent countless hours in a
car and experienced the tiring and gruesome road trips with our
parents and even by ourselves, we have almost become victims of
sleeping while driving. We believe that this has become an
epidemic that is growing, considering people in today’s economy
will do almost anything, and drive almost anywhere to obtain a
job. Employees like these have the difficulty of driving up to
an hour or two a day just to travel to and from work. Working
long nights and endless quarters, the idea of Sleepless Driving
is one that can manage the safety of such employees, in addition
to those traveling long distances or even after a long night
out.
Sleepless Driving utilizes sensors – similar to those in
exercise bikes and treadmills – where it reads the hands/palms
of the users and transfers that information into the car’s
navigation system. More specifically, the sensors are capable of
detecting heart rate and brain activity in the cortex – both of
which decrease significantly in the initial stages of sleeping.
Brain activity is said to decrease by as much as 40% in the
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beginning stages of sleep, an extremely important factor for the
sensors to detect. In addition, a concealed camera located in
the middle of the steering wheel keeps track of the driver’s
eyelids and eyes in general, due to the fact that eyes tend to
close and roll when the user begins to doze off.
Sleepless
Driving is connected to not only the navigation system, but also
to the stereo and the braking system which both begin to
activate when the driver starts to fall asleep. It activates
with a timing mechanism, noticing decreased brain activity and
heart rate for a period of three seconds, and that is when loud
music activates to attempt to awaken the driver. If he or she
continues for two more seconds then the brake system begins to
slowly jerk so that it shakes the body to fully awaken the
driver. The music then continues to be loud for a period of
thirty seconds to fully alert the driver that his current state
is dangerous and unacceptable, giving the user no way of turning
it off. Some problems that may arise with a technology such as
this is that drivers may often wear sunglasses or regular
glasses that may interfere with the camera’s ability to
distinguish whether the driver’s eyes are closing. However, our
argument is that it is often at nighttime that drivers tend to
fall asleep at the wheel. That is why the sensors play a vital
role in Sleepless Driving, because they are in this scenario a
back up plan in fully determining the mental and physical state
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of the driver. These sensors are unnoticeable to the user, and
do not interfere at all with either the driver’s grip on the
wheel or the ability for a driver to make wide turns. The camera
is almost invisible and you can even see yourself driving within
the navigational system. The navigation system in the car is
just as important as the sensors and camera itself. The
technology within it has the ability to monitor and detect
movements within the body just as a heart/brain monitor would in
a hospital. The collaboration between medical technology and
automotive technology is simply magnificent in this product. The
combination of technologies is set to make both drivers and the
road in general a safer place for everyone by developing a way
to keep drivers alert and awake.”
Dominic begins his pitch to the car companies on why they should
buy Sleepless Driving:
“When we were asked to come up with a new creative
autonomous innovation, we drew up the following target question:
“How can we can help drivers?”
Initially our ideas focused on
the functions of entertainment and navigation in an effort to
make the driving experience more comfortable. Eventually, we
realized that the safety of both the driver and passengers was a
more important and compelling factor to us.
When we compiled our ideas together, we wanted to find a
way to put some of the power and control, previously before all
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held by the driver, into the hands of the vehicle for assistance
in emergency situations. That’s how we came up with the concept
for Sleepless Driving.
This unique design benefits all drivers
and passengers by placing emphasis on safety and protection. Our
true hope and desire for this product is to reduce drowsy driver
related accidents and ultimately save lives. The National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that
“100,000” police-reported crashes are the direct result of
driver fatigue each year.
This results in an estimated “1,550
deaths, 71,000 injuries, and $12.5 billion in monetary losses”.
When you read that statistic from the NHTSA, think of all
the people that will benefit from this safety-assistance
product. This is not just about the driver. Lets take the made
up case of a girl named Julia.
Julia is a senior in high school
and just had school and soccer practice all day. As she’s
driving back home, she gradually begins to doze off until she
finally falls asleep at the wheel. In the blink of an eye, Julia
has just had a fatal car accident and her life is cut short at
just 18 years old. Now imagine all the pain and suffering of
Julia’s beloved family and the sorrow and grief Julia’s friends
have to endure. As dark as this scenario is, it happens about
1,550 times a year according to the NHTSA. It’s scenarios like
this that we want to reduce and ideally have never occur again.
We feel that this technology should bring a stop to all driver
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fatigue related accidents and prevent drowsy driver casualties.
Ultimately, this new design is a huge advance for automobile
safety.
The automobile industry has always striven to improve human
safety while operating a motor vehicle, but has rarely utilized
a concept that stresses driver protection by allowing the car to
actually auto-function itself (i.e. play loud music, brake, blow
cold air) in an emergency situation. Drivers have always been in
complete control of their safety, whether its fastening your
seatbelt, hitting the horn, engaging or disengaging your airbag,
or making a turn signal. As a result, tens of thousands of
citizens die every year from motor vehicle accidents. Our goal
is to lower that number as much as possible, and we believe that
Sleepless Driving has the potential and capability to do that.
This new technology is accessible to all different kinds of
automobiles and will be sustainable for long periods of time.
Simply put, Sleepless driving is both an appropriate, and
necessary addition to automobile safety, and is why we believe
that every automobile manufacturer should buy and install our
product in their cars.”
Works Cited
"Facts and Stats." Drowsy Driving Stay Alert Arrive Alive RSS.
National Sleep Foundation, n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.