Car driver monitoring by networking vital data

According to the "Ambient Intelligence" concept (AmI), Tecnalia-Automoción is working on several new applications and one of them is an ECG sensor integrated with the steering wheel. A previously developed prototype of a sensorized active headrest which was designed to maintain desired horizontal and vertical safety distances to head is related to this work. Even though no continuous ECG signal could be acquired from the steering wheel because hands position is changing, nevertheless it would be possible to sample this information and find out how some particular parameters are changing during the driving activity, like those based on HRV (Heart Rate Variability). Then, Tecnalia-Automoción is designing a networked solution with smart sensors and actuators integrating the IEEE 1451 standard group, to be applied to the previously mentioned active headrest prototype and this ECG sensor.