Vehicle Floor Mat Haptic Feedback for Drowsy Driving
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Solution Overview
Problem
Drowsy driving poses significant dangers due to drivers' inability to maintain attention and react promptly, often resulting from fatigue, sleep disorders, medications, or labor-related factors, leading to potential accidents.
Innovation Solution
An added functionality vehicle floor mat that can be enabled via a smartphone app to intermittently vibrate, preventing drivers from falling asleep by providing haptic feedback, and optionally alerting them to excessive speed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a driver uses conventional floor mats, then the driving simplicity is maintained, but the ability to prevent drowsy driving is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The floor mat is designed to perform multiple functions: it serves as both a protective floor covering and a drowsiness detection system. The mat includes sensors that detect driver state, processors that analyze the data, and output mechanisms that provide alerts, transforming a simple protective mat into a multi-functional safety device that monitors and responds to driver condition.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines several functional components into a single integrated floor mat unit. The sensors, processors, and output mechanisms are merged into one device that sits on the vehicle floor, eliminating the need for separate monitoring systems and reducing overall system complexity while maintaining comprehensive drowsiness prevention capability.
2Reliability
If no additional functionality is added to the floor mat, then the ease of manufacture is maintained, but the safety functionality is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The floor mat integrates multiple functions including protection, sensing, processing, and alerting into a single manufacturable unit. By designing the mat to incorporate sensors, processors, and output mechanisms as integrated components, the system achieves enhanced safety functionality while maintaining manufacturing feasibility through standardized assembly processes.
3Reliability
If the floor mat remains a passive component, then the device complexity is low, but the ability to detect and respond to driver state is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The floor mat is designed to autonomously monitor driver state and provide alerts without requiring external intervention. The sensors continuously detect driver conditions, the processor automatically analyzes the data, and the output mechanisms independently provide warnings, enabling the mat to serve itself as a complete monitoring and alerting system.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The mat effectively keeps drivers awake and alert by providing tactile vibrations, reducing the risk of drowsy driving-related accidents and promoting safe driving practices.
Implementation Method 1
the mat can intermittently vibrate... the intermittent vibrations of the mat can be felt by the user's feet
Data Source
AI summary
A system for preventing sleep in vehicle operators can include a user device and a mat operatively connected to the user device and positioned on a driver-side floor of a vehicle. The mat can be configured to, via one or more processors, receive an enablement signal from the user device; and in response to receiving the enablement signal, cause a haptic effects generator to generate vibrations within the mat.