Car Tech: Profiles for drivers
Hey to you all... I've been totally gone for quite a while - had been busy with stuffs, you know - studies, family, creating havoc in the country's political scene... ok, kidding about the last one ;)
That day, while we were going somewhere, my driver had to get off and I took over driving. Soon I got busy adjusting the seat's distance from wheel, the backrest ANGLE, side mirrors and ofcourse the rear view mirror. Took me about a minute and it was a hell of a trouble to fix the passenger's side view mirror - we don't have those power adjustment things in our car. Yes, I drive an old junk.
Then it hit me - even with cars that got power mirrors, each different driver needs to readjust everything & that takes some time. Not only that, I've seen people driving careless soon after starting up because they were adjusting the mirrors and driving. Who knows how many accidents has happened for this reason?!! How nice it would be to have these all fixing themselves at your prefferable angles/height right after you hold the steering wheel???
So yeah - here comes my idea - Driver's profile... Let's try to figure out how it's gonna work:
1. Driver Recognition: How can the car recon you? Well, the most conventional methode would be what we saw in Transporter - a number pad where the driver will be entering his own password.
Second option - fingerprint/biometric system. A fingerprint scanner placed anywhere convenient, on the dashboard, beside the handgear or even embeded into the steering wheel.
A very ambitious thought - using a tiny camera sitting right under sun shades to take the driver's picture then run a faciial recognition program to find out who the driver is.
2. Adjusting the seat: There can be a small survo motor underneath the seat that can take care of both the seat's position & back rest angle. It should be fun, as the seat would make a light 'tic tic' sound while it takes 5-10 sec to adjust itself for the driver - just the way it happens in sci-fi.
A pneumatic (compressed air) system could be used instead of a motor. A cylinder underneath the seat will use compressed air to push/pull the seat & backrest angle. That'd make the whole process more silent but there after a certain time (a year or so) we need to refill the compressed air cylinders.
Similarly there could be a hydrolic system instead of compressed air too - cuz hydrolic systems are more efficient than pneumatic ones when they are small.
3. Mirrors: The side mirrors can be adjusted using the same motors they use in the power mirrors now. How the rear view mirror will move is a good question. Not only it has a very small base for a motor to install, it should be able to rotate the mirror left-right and swing front-back. I've drawn sketch of a small gear system for this purpose but still could not figure out a few details so I can't share it with you right away.
4. Steering Wheel angle: Many cars has options for the driver to adjust the steering wheel's angle now a days. Adjusting this might be a bit tricky for a motor so maybe a hydrolic system could be used.
So, in order to make the whole thing work, we also need to install a tiny computer inside the car. It should be able to store every driver's individual choice, process data from the sensors to figure out how much it should move the mirrors and also allow user to create new profiles, edit or delete existing profiles. It might sound like a lot of processing & data storage but in fact many of the present day cars has that much capability built into them. Many cars got a nice big LCD screen - which could be used as an User Interface. As far as my knowledge about present car-tech goes, any of the car manufacturers can bring out a concept car with these facilities built into them.
So, all you car enthusiasts, if you are into customize your car (especially USA pplz)- these could be a nice challange. Instead of a profile for everyone, you could have a button just for yourself as starter. Press that button and everything is set as per your choice. I'd love to see these things in a car near future.
Guess that's all for today. I hope to post the next one in a week. In the mean time, take care!
Have a great day...
That day, while we were going somewhere, my driver had to get off and I took over driving. Soon I got busy adjusting the seat's distance from wheel, the backrest ANGLE, side mirrors and ofcourse the rear view mirror. Took me about a minute and it was a hell of a trouble to fix the passenger's side view mirror - we don't have those power adjustment things in our car. Yes, I drive an old junk.
Then it hit me - even with cars that got power mirrors, each different driver needs to readjust everything & that takes some time. Not only that, I've seen people driving careless soon after starting up because they were adjusting the mirrors and driving. Who knows how many accidents has happened for this reason?!! How nice it would be to have these all fixing themselves at your prefferable angles/height right after you hold the steering wheel???
So yeah - here comes my idea - Driver's profile... Let's try to figure out how it's gonna work:
1. Driver Recognition: How can the car recon you? Well, the most conventional methode would be what we saw in Transporter - a number pad where the driver will be entering his own password.
Second option - fingerprint/biometric system. A fingerprint scanner placed anywhere convenient, on the dashboard, beside the handgear or even embeded into the steering wheel.
A very ambitious thought - using a tiny camera sitting right under sun shades to take the driver's picture then run a faciial recognition program to find out who the driver is.
2. Adjusting the seat: There can be a small survo motor underneath the seat that can take care of both the seat's position & back rest angle. It should be fun, as the seat would make a light 'tic tic' sound while it takes 5-10 sec to adjust itself for the driver - just the way it happens in sci-fi.
A pneumatic (compressed air) system could be used instead of a motor. A cylinder underneath the seat will use compressed air to push/pull the seat & backrest angle. That'd make the whole process more silent but there after a certain time (a year or so) we need to refill the compressed air cylinders.
Similarly there could be a hydrolic system instead of compressed air too - cuz hydrolic systems are more efficient than pneumatic ones when they are small.
3. Mirrors: The side mirrors can be adjusted using the same motors they use in the power mirrors now. How the rear view mirror will move is a good question. Not only it has a very small base for a motor to install, it should be able to rotate the mirror left-right and swing front-back. I've drawn sketch of a small gear system for this purpose but still could not figure out a few details so I can't share it with you right away.
4. Steering Wheel angle: Many cars has options for the driver to adjust the steering wheel's angle now a days. Adjusting this might be a bit tricky for a motor so maybe a hydrolic system could be used.
So, in order to make the whole thing work, we also need to install a tiny computer inside the car. It should be able to store every driver's individual choice, process data from the sensors to figure out how much it should move the mirrors and also allow user to create new profiles, edit or delete existing profiles. It might sound like a lot of processing & data storage but in fact many of the present day cars has that much capability built into them. Many cars got a nice big LCD screen - which could be used as an User Interface. As far as my knowledge about present car-tech goes, any of the car manufacturers can bring out a concept car with these facilities built into them.
So, all you car enthusiasts, if you are into customize your car (especially USA pplz)- these could be a nice challange. Instead of a profile for everyone, you could have a button just for yourself as starter. Press that button and everything is set as per your choice. I'd love to see these things in a car near future.
Guess that's all for today. I hope to post the next one in a week. In the mean time, take care!
Have a great day...
posted by iNsane at
1:37 PM
|
4 comments
