Vibrating Car Seats Help Prevent Accidents

John Morrell is a researcher over at Yale University who is working on a system which is able to warn drivers of dangers by vibrating a car seat.

The system uses a bunch of cell phone vibration motors attached to the underside of the seat. The system vibrates each time a car approaches allowing drivers to know when to look more closely for dangers that might be lurking.

While driving the motors are going all the time at a slow speed and when a car approaches the motors speed up. As well as speeding up the system detects what side of the road the car is coming at you. For example, if a car is pulling out of a drive way then one side will vibrate more and if a car passes on the other side of the road the other side of motors will vibrate more to let you know where the danger is.

The system uses vibrations rather than a visual signal as it allows the driver to to stay focussed on the road rather than a sensor at a critical point.

It isn’t clear if the system will cut down on traffic accidents just yet, but it acts as another warning system for drivers who might be nodding off to sleep at a critical point when a vehicle is passing.

Via: Switched

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