December 6, 2011

Researchers devise system to automatically switch of mobile phones while driving

by Gavril Mankoo

Speaking on a mobile phone while driving isn’t necessarily the smartest thing you’d do. One of the best ways to have you distracted while driving and ultimately leading you and fellow drivers to the emergency room, if you’re so darned lucky that is, driving and speaking on mobile phones has long been a driver’s nemesis. Now a research team led by Drs. Chen Stevens, Marco Gruteser and Richard Martin at the Stevens Institute of Technology and Rutgers in New Jersey has come up with a technology that detects if a driver is using a phone and switches the phone off with 95% accuracy! Using the phone’s Bluetooth connection and a vehicle’s speakers, the algorithm-based system measures the acoustic signals emitted from the stereo and its proximity to the phone’s Bluetooth receiver. A fool-hardy way to make people hang up while driving, whether they appreciate it or not.

[Autoblog]