UNIVERSITY OF RENO, NEVADA, USA. A new type of vibrating steering wheel has been developed recently. It is aimed to help drivers avoid road accidents due to temporary blindness caused by undipped headlights or other visual impediments along the road. Another main cause of road accidents is the glare of the sun. When a driver is trying to avoid the sun’s glare while driving, he tends to veer away from the right lane which is really dangerous.
This particular steering wheel is special because when it senses that the driver is drifting away from his lane, it vibrates to tell the driver which side to steer the wheel to. The system uses the car sensors such as lane-keeping cameras and GPS to map the road ahead. That way, it will be able to warn the driver early to avoid any accidents.
The driver will surely know when to steer the wheel because the vibrations on the wheel are tuned to 275 hertz. That means the vibration level is strong enough for our skin to feel it. It’s hard to ignore because the wheel can give you the signal by vibrating on the right or the left side. That means you have to steer either to the left or to the right, depending on what side of the wheel you felt the vibration on.
The project was led by associate professor Eelke Folmer and graduate student Burkay Sucu. Right now, they are looking at distributing the vibrating device more widely around the wheel for additional accuracy. In general, it is a very promising work which could lead to the next best thing in the near future.
| Invention | Vibrating Steering Wheel |
|---|---|
| Organization | University of Reno, Nevada, USA |
| Researcher | Prof. Eelke Folmer & Burkay Sucu |
| Field(s) | Cars, Motoring, Automotive, Driving Safety, Vibrating Steering Wheel, Haptic, Tactile Alert |
| Further Information | New Scientist |
