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p Notice that the moving band of LEDs are lit on the side to where the driver is looking, drawing his attention toward the problem. Which is more important: knowing how many sensors a modern luxury car has, or taking the information they provide and giving it to the driver in a way that is useful? In many ways, the answer to that question depends upon whether your paycheck comes from Purchasing or Engineering. If the former, you undoubtedly will be grasping your chest as you count of the eight ultrasonic sensors (four per bumper), three front-facing radars (two short range and one long range), camera (or a pair of cameras if you desire pedestrian detection) located next to the rain sensor behind the insider rearview mirror, another camera peering out the back to see what���s behind when reversing, twin short-range radar units in the rear for blind spot detection, tire pressure monitoring units (four) yaw rate sensors, rollover sensors, steering wheel rotation sensor, light sensor, front seat occupant sensors, capacitive sensors in the door handles (or a proximity sensor in the key fob), multiple climate control sensors (front, rear and side temperature sensors, a humidity sensor or two and heat load sensors), GPS . . . and the list goes on. This doesn���t even include the sensors being tested to check the health of the driver through galvanic skin response, heart rate, etc. Look at this array of sensors from the engineering side, and you see a lot of information being gathered, weighed and disseminated around the car, including a good bit that combines the output of discrete sensors in order to expand safety system capabilities. Useful information all, but worthless without a proper alert system for the driver. ���Right now we have two extremes,��� says Tejas Desai, Continental North America���s Head of Interior Electronics Solutions. ���We are either always yelling at the driver or doing nothing until it���s almost too late, and braking hard. We have to understand driver intent. I know from the car where he is going and what is happening around the vehicle ��� good or bad. But I have to know if he is paying attention, and where that attention is focused, to be able to bring him back into the loop.��� As you might have guessed, this means adding yet another sensor to the list enumerated above. That���s when Zachary Bolton, Project Engineer at Continental North America���s Algorithm Development group (conti-online. com), introduces the Driver Analyzer. A single camera with an LED light source to either side of the lens, it looks for facial curvature, a nose and a jaw line. From that information it can tell the orientation of the driver���s head, and estimate where he is looking. This is nothing new, technology like this has been around for more than a decade. However, the cost of the camera and light sources, as well as the software to keep track of an independent variable (a human head) in three dimensions within a con���ned space, has improved considerably in that time. ���When I add this information to what the safety systems are gathering, I get a much more complete picture of what���s happening,��� says Bolton. This still doesn���t settle how to turn this information into something useful for 23