Car seats always had only one function; offering a comfortable sitting place for the driver and its passengers. But this is going to change, at least if it is up to Shigeomi Koshimizu, Tilak Dias and William Hurley. Their aim is to enable car seats to prevent auto theft and decrease the amount of car accidents.
Preventing car theft
Shigeomi Koshimizu, a mechanical engineer, and his team at the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology in Tokyo developed a system, which allows a driver to start their car only after the system recognizes their butt (Nusca, 2011).
An ultra sensitive sheet is implemented in the car seat, which identifies the behind of the driver. How does this work? First of all, the sheet collects data about the derrière, for example its size, shape, weight and pressure distribution. The system will then make an identical butt print of the frequent driver(s) of the car. Using this system, no one else will be able to start the car. So if a thief sits in the car (even when he has the car keys) the car will not start, because the smart seat will not recognize his but print. Unfamiliar drivers can only start the car by entering a special password.
Preventing car accidents
Besides the decrease in auto theft, the smart car seats will also reduce the number of accidents. Tilak Dias and William Hurley, in collaboration with Plessey, developed an electrocardiogram sensor, which measures the drivers’ alertness and concentration by means of irregular heartbeat signals (NTU, 2014). Once the driver loses alertness, the system will recognize the irregular heartbeat, by constantly comparing it to stored data. The system will signal the driver to stop the car. If this signal is ignored, the system directly turns on adaptive cruise control or lane departure technology, which will keep the car on the road.
These features will give a new dimension to your car seat; it will become much more intelligent due to the possibility of data storage. In both cases described earlier, the new data will be compared with stored data. If this diverges, the system will intervene, which could lead to positive outcomes and guarantee a whole new level of safety for the driver.
- NTU (2014) Car seats which detect when drivers are falling asleep, http://www4.ntu.ac.uk/apps/news/160600-15/Car_seats_which_detect_when_drivers_are_falling_asleep.aspx, used in 2016.
- Nusca, A. (2011) In Japan, seat sensors that can recognize you, https://www.cnet.com/news/in-japan-seat-sensors-that-can-recognize-you/, used in 2016.
Dear Alexander, my first thought when reading your post is: this is great! What a great idea on how to prevent theft and on how to make driving safer. While I think a butt recognition seat is also a bit funny, I think that it could actually work. However, what would happen for example if the driver loses weight? Is our butt always the same, from day to day? I guess that is where the special password comes in, and I am sure once the system is developed, there will be option to add multiple drivers and to change drivers.
As for the decrease in car accidents, I think this is the biggest benefit of the system, as more than 90% of accidents in traffic happen because of humans. If you have been driving for a long time, you are less alert, hence you increase the likelihood of an accident, without something even realizing it yourself. However, what is there is something next to the road or if the car should not continue to keep driving the same speed? Will the system know then as well, or does this still have to be further develop? It reminds me a bit of a self-driving car, with the automatic cruise-control or lane departure. I guess this still has to be developed a bit, as it is sometimes not possible to departe from a lane or use cruise-control.
I guess time will tell, but so far, I think these innovations offer a lot of potential!