UB, IBEC, and Ficosa join forces to develop a mobile application to detect drowsiness while driving

Somnoalert<sup>®</sup> is a smart phone application that uses inertial sensors and GPS data to detect movements that are characteristic of nodding off at the wheel.
Somnoalert® is a smart phone application that uses inertial sensors and GPS data to detect movements that are characteristic of nodding off at the wheel.
Research
(27/02/2013)

This week, the University of Barcelona, the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and their industry partner Ficosa present at the Mobile World Congress a new technology to combat dozing of when driving.

Somnoalert<sup>®</sup> is a smart phone application that uses inertial sensors and GPS data to detect movements that are characteristic of nodding off at the wheel.
Somnoalert® is a smart phone application that uses inertial sensors and GPS data to detect movements that are characteristic of nodding off at the wheel.
Research
27/02/2013

This week, the University of Barcelona, the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and their industry partner Ficosa present at the Mobile World Congress a new technology to combat dozing of when driving.

The drowsiness alarm, Somnoalert®, is a smart phone application that uses inertial sensors and GPS data to detect movements that are characteristic of nodding off at the wheel, such as deviation from the driving lane, or sudden corrections. A later prototype also incorporates biomedical sensors to analyze respiration data.

The patented software is the result of a collaborative project between Signal and Information Processing for Sensing Systems (IBEC) research group, led by Santiago Marco, the UBʼs Department of Electronic Engineering (both located at the BKC), and Ficosa, a multinational which researches, develops, produces and commercializes automobile systems and parts, and is headquartered in Barcelona.

“One of the main causes of car accidents is drowsiness, especially on long highway trips”, explains Marco. “Most monitoring systems developed in the last few years have been integrated systems that need to be connected to the carʼs system. Our device combines our groupʼs expertise in sensors and biological data analysis with Ficosaʼs vehicle know-how, and is completely portable”.

“Accidents related to drowsiness have a very high social and economic impact, and the main automotive industries are facing them, in order to reduce current accident rates”, adds Alan Montesi, the person in charge of the project at Ficosa.

The World Mobile Congress is the most importance conference in the mobile phone sector. Its latest edition is expected to host about 70,000 participants from more than 200 countries, and more than 3,000 journalists.