Some studies have shown that drowsy driving can be just as dangerous as drunk driving. Some car manufacturers are building sensors into their cars that will detect drowsy drivers and wake them before they become a hazard on the road. A European project called Harken has developed a system that is far more intuitive than any currently on the market.

Most of the current sleepy-driver detection systems revolve around eye and head movements, yawning, erratic driving, and posture. The Harken system uses smart textiles to determine a driver’s state even before he or she begins to nod off. The textiles are built into the seat belts and seat covers and are able to monitor the driver’s heart rate and respiration from key contact points on the driver’s body.

According to Harken, heart rate variability and respiration rates are tell-tale signs that the monotony of driving is lulling the driver to sleep. The smart textiles filter out other input like car vibrations to zero in on the driver’s physiological state, which is no small feat considering that there is no direct sensor-to-skin contact involved. The sensors may also be helpful in detecting medical emergencies like heart attacks or seizures occurring behind the wheel.

Harken doesn’t provide many details about how the system will actually work or how the driver will be brought back to a wakeful state other than indicating that an alarm would go off. They do, however, say that they want to bring the system to car manufacturers as quickly as possible. Currently, drowsy driving is cited as a contributing factor in more than eight percent of all vehicle crashes. The sooner smart sensors can start keeping drivers awake behind the wheel, the sooner that sobering figure can start dropping.

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Whiskers that adorn the faces of some mammals aren’t there just to add to the animals’ cuteness. They are highly sensitive tactile appendages that help the animals find their way around and keep their balance. A team of scientists at UC Berkeley, led by professor Ali Javey, are now working on robotic whiskers that can be used on future generations of robots and in advanced human/robot interfaces. Robots equipped with the highly sensitive whiskers will be able to find their way around their environments more easily thanks to the mammalian-inspired appendages.

The whiskers developed by the team can detect pressure as minimal as one pascal – or about the amount of force a dollar bill exerts on a table it is sitting on. Their sensitivity is about ten times that of previous generations of similar robotic whiskers. Made of carbon nanotubes and silver nanoparticles, the whiskers are inexpensive and easy to produce. They are flexible and lightweight, so they wouldn’t add much bulk to robots but would greatly increase their ability to move around unassisted.

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We remember when bras did what they were supposed to and very little else. Apparently the technology age has changed that and now even our lingerie is wired, for better or worse. These two conceptual brassieres use technology to perform some high-tech (and very sexist) deeds.

The True Love Tester bra from Japanese lingerie company Ravijour is supposed to be “a revolutionary bra that knows how women truly feel.” The bra is equipped with sensors that are supposed to recognize the wearer’s differing heart rates during a variety of activities. The front clasp only opens when the wearer experiences “true love” as determined by an associated smartphone app.

The apparent purpose of the Love Tester Bra is to keep vulnerable women from having casual flings, ignoring the fact that women are smart enough to make their own decisions. The ridiculous concept doesn’t explain what happens when a wearer runs into her true love on the street and her bra flies open – we aren’t even sure how you might get into and out of the bra every day.

Perhaps more useful and associated with a more reputable company, this bra is meant to stop women from indulging in emotional eating. Researchers from Microsoft, the University of Southampton (UK), and the University of Rochester (NY) came together to develop a tool that would recognize and help prevent emotional eating. The bra is full of sensors that measure the wearer’s vital signs, which are then sent through an app that is supposed to determine the wearer’s emotional state.

Along with the bra’s sensors, users can rely on the smartphone app to help them stop emotional eating. The app would allow users to log their food intake and emotional states day by day, making a connection between emotions and eating. It may seem as sexist as the Love Tester Bra, but the researchers say that they chose a bra only because it rests close to the heart all day, and men don’t typically wear a similar garment. The bra and app were found to be 75 percent accurate in determining the wearer’s emotional state, but it probably won’t be put into production anytime soon.

The post Fancy Foundations: 2 Highly Insane High-Tech Bra Concepts first appeared on Gajitz.

The Internet of Things creeps a little more into the mainstream every day. Now, a printed electronic sensor could add your supermarket meat to that meatspace network. An American company called Thinfilm Electronics has developed a stand-alone temperature tracking label that will stick onto perishable products. The sensor takes the guesswork out of dealing with temperature-sensitive products by indicating if the products have ever been exposed to temperatures outside of the safe range.

The sensors, when attached to pharmaceutical packages or perishable food, would prevent unnecessary waste and ease the minds of consumers who might wonder if that chicken was ever left in a hot truck for a few hours on the way to the store. Printing electronics in a low-voltage, battery-powered label format has plenty more uses than just monitoring temperatures. These stand-alone data trackers can give us a whole new insight into the hidden lives of everyday objects.

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Subtle changes in body temperature can indicate a number of conditions and even give clues as to a person’s overall health. Digital thermometers have made it simple for anyone to measure their temperature at home, but they are often inaccurate. Complicating matters even further is the fact that most of us don’t think to take our own temperatures unless we have a fever.

A flexible thermometer that adheres to the skin has been developed at the University of Illinois. The sensor, which is only as thick as half the width of a human hair, is incredibly sensitive and can measure temperatures with accuracy up to thousandths of a degree. The sensor consists of tiny gold wires on a rubbery sheet. The sheet is perforated to ensure that the skin is able to breathe and move naturally.

The ultra-thin sensor doesn’t just measure temperature. It can also measure skin hydration, blood flow, and even cognitive state, providing a more detailed picture of a patient’s overall health. Because it adheres to the skin – almost like a second skin – keeping constant track of a patient’s condition is simple, hands-off, and far more convenient than traditional types of health monitoring.

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