How will neurotechnology and sensing impact automotive: part 1

While progress toward the driverless car gets a lot of attention, until every car is driverless, the driver is still an essential part of the car. Since driver distraction, impairments, fatigue, inattention, emotion, medical emergencies, and more all contribute to the human error that causes over 90% of car accidents, efforts have been underway for many years to address these issues.

Before a fully qualified SAE Level 5 or even SAE Level 3 driverless vehicle, improving the driver’s response and driving capabilities certainly falls within the advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) designation. Improved driver capabilities can also help drivers perform better when they transition control of a driverless vehicle to driver mode. Sensors are the foundation of improved driver responses.

Today: it’s cameras

Today, some vehicles have a real-time driver monitoring system (DMS). Initially, driving pattern sensors, sometimes used with a forward-facing camera to monitor lane markings, monitored the driver to provide an alert. Newer DMS approaches use an interior driver-facing camera to monitor driver behavior while driving. In some systems, infrared (IR) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) help the camera observe the driver’s face, including their eyes, reaction times, and more.

Several carmakers offer camera-based systems today, and aftermarket units have been available for many years. While camera-based systems do an acceptable job of driver monitoring, electroencephalography (EEG) technology is being pursued to provide a deeper understanding of a driver’s cognitive state and improve the driving experience.

Tomorrow: EEGs and driving?

Traditionally, an EEG measures electrical activity produced by the brain through electrodes placed on a person’s scalp. Commonly called brainwaves, these electrical signals can indicate a state of wakeful rest, relaxation, and creativity when properly measured and analyzed. The internationally recognized 10-20 system describes the standardized location of EEG scalp electrodes. The 10-20 system is based on the surface placement of electrodes and their relationship to the cerebral cortex’s underlying area (nodes) while recognizing different regions for brain activity.

The 10 and 20 refer to the distances between adjacent electrodes. The key here is “electrodes.” As shown in Figure 1a, several electrodes are commonly used in diagnostic and research settings. Figure 1b shows one manufacturer’s product to simplify EEG measurements with a battery-powered headset using embedded electrodes.

Several universities are conducting neurotechnology research to demonstrate the effectiveness of brain monitoring in an automotive environment. One example is the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Center for Injury Research & Prevention (CIRP). CIRP’s Neuroscience of Driving Program aims to advance brain monitoring science by studying the brain’s ongoing development and cognitive function during adolescence.

Unlike EEG technology, which senses electrical signals from the brain, CIRP researchers use magnetoencephalography (MEG) to sense the magnetic fields produced by neurons in the brain. EEG data could be collected simultaneously with MEG to gather reference information and determine where the brain activity originated.

Currently, researchers can track eye movements and brain responses, second-by-second, while participants and patients are driving. Measurements made on test subjects in a laboratory setting use a substantial headgear to make the readings.

Part 2 of this blog will show how EEG measurements are being made in real-world situations on actual vehicles.