Mitsubishi Electric announced that it has developed the first in-vehicle driver monitoring system using one wide-angle camera to detect the driver and front passenger simultaneously. The technology is expected to contribute to enhanced driving safety and when it launches commercially sometime from around 2018. Mitsubishi Electric will exhibit this driver monitoring system during the 45th Tokyo Motor Show 2017 .
Conventional driver-monitoring systems generally use a camera to analyze the driver’s face for inattentiveness or drowsiness. Recent imaging systems monitor not only the driver but also the front passenger for added safety and convenience.
Mitsubishi Electric has now developed a technology that uses just one wide-angle camera to monitor both the driver and the front passenger and warn them about potentially dangerous driving behavior, such as looking off to the side or sleepiness, and to identify face and hand gestures for enhanced assistance, such as changing air conditioning settings. In the future the system will be expanded to detect body postures to determine slumping or collapsing due to medial or other conditions.
What the Wide Angle Camera Does
- Monitors both driver and front passenger for enhanced safety and convenience.
- Monitors both the driver and the front passenger to provide automated assistance, such as adjusting the air conditioning or audio entertainment system.
- Recognition of hand gestures of both the driver and the front passenger to control various in-vehicle devices.
- To-be-developed detection of not only heads but also upper bodies to detect potentially dangerous behavior, such as abnormal postures including slumping over or collapsing backwards.
- Offers a flexible installation of camera position The wide-angle camera can be installed flexibly within the vehicle and eliminates the need to install a second camera for the front passenger..