A new tool designed to monitor driver health in a bid to reduce the occurrence of road deaths has been developed by the Swiss technology innovation center CSEM.

The tool, dubbed DriverCheck, is a miniaturized in-cabin camera that continuously monitors the driver’s heartbeat, breathing and alertness in real time.

Source: CSEM

According to DriverCheck’s developers, if the technology detects fatigue, stress or a sudden medical event, the system will warn the driver. Likewise, that data could also be used by the vehicle to initiate assistance functions including safe slowing or parking.

Specifically, if the driver experiences a heart attack, for example, DriverCheck will sound an alarm and then hand over control of the car to the vehicle’s advanced driver assistance systems, which then flashes an alert, slows the car, switches on the hazard lights and steers the car to safety.

This is done, according to the developers, using a tiny camera and advanced AI, which enables DriverCheck to detect micro-blinks that suggest driver drowsiness, subtle posture changes that suggest distraction and increases in heart rate that suggest a medical emergency.

During trials of the system, DriverCheck measured driver heart rate with a margin of error under three beats per minute and detected drowsiness with over 95% accuracy.

“DriverCheck acts like a guardian angel — always watching, never intrusive,” explained CSEM. “Our goal is simple: to save lives by intervening 30 seconds before tragedy strikes.”

For more on DriverCheck, watch the accompanying video that appears courtesy of CSEM.