At the Wheel

Lidar-emitting glasses which alerts drivers when they are dozing off at the wheel.

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Inspiration

100,000 crashes per year occur from drowsy or sleepy drivers. We wanted to help reduce the amount of exhausted drivers there were falling asleep at the wheel so we made a pair of glasses that does that.

What it does

The glasses utilizes a LiDAR sensor to detect when a drivers head nods downwards. Once it detects a driver has nodded downward, there will be an interactive element, which could be a buzzer, but for now is a button the user has to press to disable the alarm. After 3 offenses, an SMS will get sent to the driver's emergency contact notifying them potentially of their location, and a warning. This data gets put onto a Google Cloud BigQuery instance for data monitoring.

How we built it

Used an esp32 with a LiDAR sensor connected to a pair of glasses which then gives feedback and enables an LED once it detects a driver would have dozed off. For the SMS we used Twilio, and for the data we used Google Cloud's BigQuery.

Challenges we ran into

Setting up Google Cloud SQL database was tough due to it being new territory for us, and on the hardware side, choosing a sensor was limited. We originally wanted to use an accelerometer, but after only having faulty sensors, we decided to take up the challenge of making this work with nothing but a LiDAR.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Figured out how to get the BigQuery database to display results of our sensor read-outs, additionally, emergency contact messaging was able to be integrated seamlessly and works as intended.

What we learned

Learned how to use Google Cloud, how to implement Twilio, how to get serial port readouts using C#, as well as graphic design for the logo.

What's next for At the Wheel

Implementing a buzzer for a more immediate feedback for the driver and using a more reliable sensor like an accelerometer. Using data models can provide analytics for trucking companies to monitor their drivers and see who is most at risk.

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