Smart Steering Wheel Prototype for In-Vehicle Vital Sign Monitoring.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Automotive Safety
• Wearable Technology

Background:

• Drowsy driving and medical emergencies are significant causes of traffic accidents.
• Current driver monitoring systems lack a balance between accuracy and practicality.
• Continuous, non-intrusive driver monitoring is essential for road safety.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design, fabricate, and validate a smart steering wheel prototype for multimodal physiological monitoring.
• To assess the feasibility of integrating ECG, PPG, and inertial sensors into a steering wheel.
• To evaluate the system's performance in both laboratory and real-world driving conditions.

Main Methods:

• Developed a smart steering wheel prototype with dry-contact ECG, PPG, and inertial sensors.
• Conducted laboratory validation against medical-grade equipment.
• Performed on-road testing in a custom electric research vehicle under dynamic conditions.

Main Results:

• The prototype successfully captured high-quality ECG and PPG signals suitable for heart rate variability analysis.
• On-road testing confirmed the system's functionality, with ECG signals robust enough for R-peak detection despite motion artifacts.
• The multimodal system demonstrated feasibility for unobtrusive driver monitoring.

Conclusions:

• The multimodal smart steering wheel is a viable solution for continuous, non-intrusive driver monitoring.
• This integrated platform supports the development of advanced algorithms for fatigue prediction and medical event detection.
• The technology has the potential to significantly enhance road safety.