Startups in the automotive world face an oxymoron more than never these days. They try to offer advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that take care of more and more car functions these days. At the same time, they need drivers to pay even more attention than if they were driving themselves. Harman International bought a promising technology to address that, at least to some extent.
CAARESYS was founded in Israel and developed an in-cabin monitoring system based on radar sensing. A small radio-frequency (RF) radar is installed anywhere inside the car cabin. That gives us the impression that one of such radars would be enough. However, a video released in 2020 states you can install the radar in a seat, which may mean that individual monitoring depends on how many radars the car has.
The Israeli startup said that the RF radar could monitor respiration rate (RR), heart rate (HR), and heart rate variability (HRV). This is the core of what the company called VITALCAARE. Based on these parameters, it could detect conditions “such as stress, fatigue,” etc.
CAARESYS had other solutions based on the sensor, such as CABINCAARE (to count how many passenger a vehicle has and in which seats) and BABYCAARE (to check if children or animals are left unattended in a car). The company now calls it child presence detection (CPD). The Israeli company was especially proud that its solution does not need a camera, eliminating privacy concerns.
Harman International is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. If this new system is as promising as Harman and CAARESYS believe it is, we will probably see it in Korean cars before Samsung sells it to anyone else. If it can monitor the driver in more ways than that – or is integrated with a camera system to detect drowsiness or inattention – this could be a life-saving tech in more than a way.
The Israeli startup said that the RF radar could monitor respiration rate (RR), heart rate (HR), and heart rate variability (HRV). This is the core of what the company called VITALCAARE. Based on these parameters, it could detect conditions “such as stress, fatigue,” etc.
CAARESYS had other solutions based on the sensor, such as CABINCAARE (to count how many passenger a vehicle has and in which seats) and BABYCAARE (to check if children or animals are left unattended in a car). The company now calls it child presence detection (CPD). The Israeli company was especially proud that its solution does not need a camera, eliminating privacy concerns.
Harman International is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. If this new system is as promising as Harman and CAARESYS believe it is, we will probably see it in Korean cars before Samsung sells it to anyone else. If it can monitor the driver in more ways than that – or is integrated with a camera system to detect drowsiness or inattention – this could be a life-saving tech in more than a way.