Ford Has Created A Chair That Monitors The Driver's Heart Rate

Ford engineers have developed a prototype car seat the driver can monitor heart activity and could one day reduce the number of accidents and fatalities caused by heart attacks that occurred while driving.

Engineers Research and Development Center of Ford's Aachen, Germany, worked with local technical experts from the university on this project. to solve a problem often ignored in traffic safety - accidents caused by drivers who have heart problems.

Ford seat prototype technology includes ECG (electrocardiograph) which monitors the heart's electrical impulses and detect signs of irregularities while offering the driver a warning to make a medical examination.

If a traditional ECG device requires a doctor's office to be attached to metal electrodes on the patient's skin at various points on the body, the seat Ford has six sensors that detect heart activity driver integrated directly with clothes.

"The system can detect if someone has a cardiovascular problem, such as a stroke, and can also be used to detect symptoms of other conditions such as high blood pressure or imbalances," says Dr. Achim Lindner, Ford Research Centre. "It will benefit from not only the driver, could make roads safer for all road users."

According to a study conducted for 3 years in the EU, drivers who suffer from cardiovascular disease are on average 23% more prone to involvement in an accident. For drivers who suffer from angina pectoris, this rises to 52%.

With 23% of Europe's population will reach over 65 by 2025 and 30% by 2050, the number of drivers at risk of stroke will increase markedly in coming decades. In 2008, the European Union, the number of deaths from heart totaled 40% of the total.

Ford tested the prototype of the chair and the various interactions with advanced in-vehicle systems, for example, advising the driver to pull over and seek medical assistance or even to automatically send an alert to an emergency number if needed.

In preliminary tests, the seat of the Ford driver to monitor the heart rate showed an accuracy rate of 98% of driving time for 95% of drivers. Ford engineers looking to improve sensors to record the signals with a large number of materials.

Source: http://www.ford.com/

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