Meet George Jetson – and his hands-free car? It’s true! We’ve all been urged to pledge hands- free talking when using our phones while driving, but this is a whole new level! Yes, the age of the Jetsons is fast approaching and researchers at Free University in Berlin say they actually have the technology to allow drivers to steer a vehicle using just their eyes.
Springfield IL new car dealers are excited that this intelligence might one day appear in their showrooms. A team from Artificial Intelligence Group with team leader Raul Rojas demonstrated the technology with a Dodge Caravan dubbed the “Spirit of Berlin”.
The technology works using a helmet and a system called EyeDriver. The helmet has two cameras with infrared LED. One camera points in the direction the driver is looking, it’s known as the scene camera. The second camera focuses on one of the driver’s eyes, the eye camera. Information is gathered from both cameras by a laptop computer using HED4 technology. The information is relayed through LAN to an onboard computer in the vehicle.
Customers of Central Illinois used car dealers will want to keep tabs on this amazing technology. The driver can even choose between two modes – “free ride” and “routing”. The free ride mode allows the driver to look in the direction he or she wants to steer. The positions are linked to the wheel motor and steering, so the steering wheel turns when the driver’s eyes move.
The routing mode steers autonomously the majority of the time. At an intersection the system will ask the driver to select the next route and the driver needs to stare in the desired direction for three seconds. Your Springfield IL new car dealer will no doubt have an interesting time providing test drives with this technology.
