Jaguar Land Rover researching Sixth Sense to measure brain waves

Jaguar Land Rover has revealed a range of new road safety technologies that they are developing to reduce the number of accidents on the roads. The new research projects include what the company is calling Mind Sense research, a project that utilises advanced technology, from sports, medicine and aerospace, to monitor the driver's heart rate, respiration and levels of brain activity to identify driver stress, fatigue and lack of concentration. In short, it reads your body and brain and alerts you through pulses and vibrations.

Dr Wolfgang Epple, Jaguar Land Rover Director of Research and Technology, said: "We believe some of the technologies currently being used in aerospace and medicine could help improve road safety and enhance the driving experience. The car is becoming more intelligent and more able to utilise cutting-edge sensors. These research projects are investigating how we could exploit this for the benefit of our customers and other road users.

"One key piece of new research is to see how we could measure brainwaves to monitor if the driver is alert and concentrating on driving. Even if the eyes are on the road, a lack of concentration or a daydream will mean the driver isn't paying attention to the driving task. They may miss a warning icon or sound, or be less aware of other road users so we are looking at how we could identify this and prevent it causing an accident."

The Mind Sense will be able to know if you, the driver, begin to daydream or feel sleepy during the commute. The system reads the brainwaves through the steering wheel sensors and alerts the driver with vibrations through the accelerator pedal.

Other researches include Driver Wellness Monitoring which monitors the well-being of the driver using a medical-grade sensor embedded in the seat; Predictive Infotainment Screen with mid-air touch that uses cameras embedded in the car to track the driver's hand movements, enabling the system to predict which button the driver intends to press and button selection happens mid-air; Haptic Accelerator Pedal used to communicate with the driver to increase the speed of response and to ensure the correct action is taken.