AdvicyDrive band rings an alarm if you fall asleep at the wheel
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Smartwatches and bands promise a range of features but the latest has the potential to save your life.
Called AdvicyDrive, the wearable monitors your heart rate while driving to determine how awake you are.
If it detects a drop in heart rate, which suggests you're dozing off, it sounds an alarm on a connected smartphone.
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The AdvicyDrive sensor monitors your heart rate while driving to determine how awake you are. If it detects a drop in heart rate, which suggests you're dozing off, it sounds an alarm on a smartphone (illustrated)
When a person falls to sleep their heart rate drops by up around 10 to 30 beats per minute on average.
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To detect the most subtle of these changes, AdvicyDrive uses digital photoplethysmography (PPG) - an imaging test used to detect changes in blood flow at the microvascular level on the skin.
It's typically used to monitor blood flow in people with Raynaud's disease, for example, from their fingers and toes.
The technology shines a green LED onto the skin, and based on the variations in colour that are reflected back, the sensor can detect the heartbeat.
It uses a traffic-light system to monitor the beats and will issue a cautionary warning if it begins to drop into the 'amber' section.
The loud alarm rings when the rate reaches the 'red' zone'.
Its Italian designers said: 'The pulsed light sensor technology is the best on the market in terms of stability, reliability even in motion and in terms of energy consumption.'
They added that the detection is on par with a chest band 'without the disadvantage of having to wear an uncomfortable strap'.
The clip can be fitted to a wristband but will also attach to a person's underwear. It will work as long as its in contact with the skin.
The sensor is currently under development, so these claims have not been put to the test, and the firm has launched a campaign on Kickstarter to fund the project.
Kits are available to pre-order for £70 and will retail for £100 if the campaign is successful.
To detect the most subtle of changes, AdvicyDrive uses digital photoplethysmography (PPG) - an imaging test used to detect changes in blood flow at the microvascular level on the skin. It shines a green LED onto the skin, and based on the variations in colour that are reflected back, the sensor can detect the heartbeat
The clip (pictured) can be fitted to a wristband but will also clip to a person's underwear or clothes. It will work as long as its in contact with the skin. The sensor is currently under development, so these claims have not been put to the test, and the firm has launched a campaign on Kickstarter to fund the project
Last year, researchers from the Biomechanics Institute in Valencia, Spain unveiled the Harken system.
It measures the driver's heart rate and breathing via a sensor system knitted into the seatbelt and seat cover. If the rates drop too much, a warning alarm goes off.
AdvicyDrive uses a traffic-light system to monitor the wearer's heart rate. The app will ring an alarm when the rate reaches the 'red' zone' (shown)
Designer Jose Solaz said: 'The variation in heart and respiratory rate are good indicators of the state of the driver as they are related to fatigue.
Harken can monitor those variables and therefore warn the driver before the symptoms appear.'
The researchers said the system is innovative because it can cancel out the motion of the car and only pick up heart and respiratory rate thanks to the 'smart textile materials' embedded in the seat cover and seatbelt.
Crashes caused by tired drivers are most likely to happen on long journeys on monotonous roads, such as motorways, according to research.
Young male drivers, lorry drivers, employees in company cars and shift workers have been found to be most at risk of falling asleep at the wheel.
Research shows tiredness among drivers accounts for 20 to 35 per cent of serious accidents and suggests there are more than 6,000 fatalities a year in Europe because of driver fatigue.
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