In Spain, drowsiness at the wheel is one of the factors that directly or indirectly affects almost 30% of traffic accidents that occur in our country. In fact, more than 55% of Spanish drivers state that having driven despite symptoms of drowsiness, so you have a high probability of having an accident if you do not take the appropriate measures while driving.
A few weeks ago, we told you about the cap that Ford had planned to market in the future for drivers, a cap that analyzes the position of the head at all times and its movements thanks to the gyroscopes integrated in it. The moment it detected that the driver was showing sleep symptoms, it began to emit a loud sound accompanied by a bright light.
If this project is finally carried out, at the moment it is a mystery, but it is not the only solution that we can currently find on the market. The Korean company Samsung has just presented the Samsung Copilot application, an application for wearables with which the company wants to help reduce traffic accidents due to fatigue and drowsiness. Wearables have become a device increasingly used by a large number of users, this application being a great opportunity to get more out of it.
How Samsung Copilot works
The Samsung Copilot application has been developed in collaboration with the Research Group of the Higher School of Engineering and Technology of the International University of La Rioja, led by Professor Sergio Ríos. This application studies the user's way of driving at all times together with the driver's pulsations at rest, to be able to warn us when we leave the pattern at the right time, thus eliminating false positives. In addition, it also allows us to store a contact telephone number, so that in an emergency, we can quickly make a call from our wrist, if we do not have physical access to the terminal.
Once the application has registered the driver's pulsations and knows what his driving patterns are, the application is in charge of analyzing the movements of the arms thanks to the different sensors that the smartwatches incorporate as a heart rate sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer and pedometer, detecting if any deviation from the patterns registered in the application is detected. If this occurs, the application will begin to vibrate intensively to alert the driver to the risk they are taking.
Once we have installed the application in the smarwatch, we must open it at a time so that the application has access to all the sensors of the device and so that it also makes a measurement of our pulse at rest. Next, it will ask us for access to make phone calls and it will ask us to enter a phone number in case of emergency. Once the configuration has been completed, the main menu will be displayed, which consists of 4 options: Driving mode, Settings, Terms of service and Exit.
By clicking on Driving mode the application will invite us to do not use the smartwatch while we use the application. An analog dial with the time will then be shown, in case we want to check the time at any time and it will start working, warning us through vibrations that we are running the risk of falling asleep, inviting us to download off the road for a while.
Fight drowsiness at the wheel
During these days, the number of road trips increases as well as the number of copious meals we make to celebrate Christmas, New Year's Eve, New Year, the arrival of the Kings ... Any reason is good to meet with the Family surrounding a table and enjoying a good meal. But if we have to take the car to make a trip, we must bear in mind that this type of food, sare the worst travel companion we can find.
But in addition, we must also take into account when making long journeys, rest at least every 200 kilometers or every two hours, to get out of the car, clear ourselves, have a coffee and stretch our legs. It is also advisable not to put the heating of the same to full, especially in winter, since both the heating and copious meals they prompt us to close our eyes very easily.
Whenever possible, it is advisable to have a conversation with the companion to keep us distracted at all times, listen to music, drink energy or caffeinated drinks and above all, place the backrest as straight as possible, so that we cannot get into the driver's seat, so the more uncomfortable we are, the less chance we have of falling asleep.
With the launch of Samsung Copilot, the Korean company puts at our disposal one more element that will help us avoid that during our car journeys, we may suffer some kind of mishap related to sleep. In fact, 17 million drivers have felt sleepy at the wheel of which, more than 8 million have had micro-dreams, according to the latest report from the Spanish Foundation for Road Safety, so it is not nonsense and must be taken very seriously. I laughed.
Samsung Copilot Compatibility
At the moment, this application is available for both wearables managed by Tizen like models managed by Android Wear, but soon it will also be for the Apple Watch.
