Technology
| By : Gurpreet Kaur | Previous | Next |
| Posted on : 02 Sep, 2005 | Total Views : 278 |
ELECTRONICS 4
Electronics and Auto Safety
With more than 50,000 people killed in automobile accidents in 1966, auto safety campaigns have stirred the conscience of the American public. In the United States, more than 96 million licensed drivers pilot about 87 million vehicles, and over 870 billion miles of auto travel are carried over 3.6 million miles of highways, roads, and streets.
In an effort to find the "why" of more than 12 million accidents reported each year—involving about 22 million drivers—electronics is being used. The major factor in auto accidents, the human behind the wheel, is being closely studied with the aid of a driving simulator developed by RCA for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare's Division of Accident Prevention. The simulator consists of the shell of an automobile connected to a 20-foot-long wooden tunnel. The inside of the car contains a standard dashboard and steering assembly; however, outside light is blocked out by wooden window boxes which provide illuminated scenes of highway traffic. Through the windshield one can see a 20-foot roadway with five endless belts. Two belts simulate two lanes of a highway, two belts simulate the shoulders of the road, and the fifth belt represents the center lane. As the belts are moved together, they create the illusion of highway travel. An optical system combines this view with the illuminated pictures provided by the wooden window boxes.
As the subject sits behind the wheel during a test, an unseen simulator operator at a computer console can suddenly put other vehicles alongside the driver, thus simulating conditions causing the majority of accidents. Driver reaction response to various tests, when thousands of drivers are involved in such tests, may lead to improvements in road and car design as well as changes in traffic regulations.
