eye-tracking ШУУД ҮЗЭХ technology
that could be used prevent drowsy driving – but the firm also has other ideas for eye sensing tech that are both more mundane and more useful in day-to-day terms.
While the potential safety benefits of the firm’s prototype "Driver Monitor System" (DMS) that was announced at CES in Las Vegas in January is impossible to deny, since it monitors the driver’s eye movements, even behind sunglasses, to detect distraction or drowsiness and trigger alerts when those situations arise, they might not be the sort of tangible improvements that buyers will notice day-in, day-out. But the firm has just published a patent that illustrates another way that eye-tracking hardware and software could help drivers – by helping to decide when to operate the rear screen’s wiper.
The patent notes, rightly, that rear
wipers have some essential problems. On wet roads or in rain,
constant wiping is rarely necessary but intermittent sweeps are often
mistimed, so at the instant you glance in the mirror there’s a good
chance the view through the back screen will be obscured. Cue the
eye-tracking tech …
According to the patent, using JLR’s
system, when your eye moves towards the rear mirror and the rear
wiper is set to "intermittent," the car will automatically give
the screen an extra wipe (provided it hasn’t just done one a moment
before), so it’s sure to be clear at just the moment you need to
see through it.
It’s never likely to be a
headline-making technology, but there are few better illustrations of
how eye-tracking technology could seamlessly improve the driving
experience, subtly working behind the scenes.
Given that few Jaguars currently use
rear wipers, at least until the forthcoming F-Pace SUV is released,
the technology is likely to appear on Land Rover machines first –
don’t be surprised if it appears on high-end Range Rovers in the
not-too-distant future.
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