A high-tech answer to road rage and other psychological issues in drivers will be suggested at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show, when some European firms and universities put the Senso model on display.
| |
| Rinspeed Senso (Rinspeed) |
Billed as ''the most sensuous car in the world,'' the Rinspeed Senso actually ''senses'' the driver by measuring his or her biometric data and ''then exerts a positive effect on him or her with the help of patterns, colors, music and fragrances.''The theory is that a person who is ''relaxed and wide-awake simply drives better and more safely.''On top of that, the car is said to remind people of the valleys between skyscrapers and uses a Porsche engine that runs on natural gas.In explaining the fundamental idea behind his firm's most recent concept car, the head of Rinspeed, Frank M. Rinderknecht, says ''the driver and not the technology should be the focal point of a car."The whole project is based on an elaborate sensory system that forms the heart of the vehicle, Rinderknecht explains. It consists of a number of sensors that have the job of gathering data about the driver's condition. There is a biometric Polar watch to measure the driver's pulse, and a ''Mobile Eye'' camera that records such driving behavior as often and how well he or she changes lane, and how close and at what speed the Senso approaches the cars in front. ''Then -- this, at any rate, is the vision -- an onboard computer evaluates the data and establishes, with the aid of special algorithms, the driver's current state of mind.''
| |
| Rinspeed Senso (Rinspeed) |
In describing the aim of the Senso, the developers of the car like to refer to meditation, and so sometimes speak of the vehicle being ''Zen-sorial.'' ''On the basis of the measured data,'' says Rinderknecht, ''the driver now receives various impulses to his senses that put him in a state of relaxed attentiveness.''The idea of ''communicating surfaces'' in the Senso comes from Andreas Fischer, a designer who developed the ''zenMotion concept'' at the Institute for Computer Sciences at the University of Zurich in close cooperation with the Institute for Psychology at the University of Innsbruck. The inspiration for the development came from studies by scientists dealing with the emotional effect of moving patterns on people. Depending upon the condition of the Senso's driver, four small Sharp LCDmonitors emit color patterns into the driver's line of vision. Orange/yellow is stimulating, blue/violet is relaxing, and green is neutral.Rinderknecht says they are ''integrated into the futuristically designed interior paneling, which lights up over the entire area and bathes the cockpit in dazzle-free ambient light.''The optical stimuli are reinforced by specially composed sounds stored digitally on a computer, and scents developed by CWS/Voitino, a fragrances specialist, flow into the car through the ventilators.Vanilla-mandarin is said to have a calming effect, while citrus-grapefruit is more stimulating.