Telepathic cruising

Clint Eastwood controlled his hijacked Soviet fighter jet by thinking in “Russian”, in the 1982 flick Firefox — and now the automotive industry looks ready to bring that concept of mind-reading technology to reality.

It may seem as far-fetched as the device in the cold-war era science fiction adventure, but several car manufacturers are looking at ways to read our brain waves while out for a drive.

In particular researchers are seeking to read the driver's mind through electroencephalography (EEG) equipment embedded in a vehicle's head rest. Currently the EEG sensors will merely detect driver fatigue during a long or monotonous route. Car companies are already well advanced developing systems that warn drivers of fatigue by monitoring biofeedback data from steering input. The EEG technology will monitor the driver's brainwaves directly.

According to a 2007 Transport Accident Commission report around 20 per cent of fatal road accidents were attributable to fatigue; this matches statistics in the U.S where drowsiness causes more than 100,000 crashes, 40,000 injuries, and around 1,550 deaths, per year.

“We know we can distinguish between the brain waves of someone who is wide awake and alert and someone who is drowsy and at risk of falling asleep at the wheel," says Tansy Brook, a spokeswoman for NeuroSky. "Further testing is required. However, we are far enough along to say this is absolutely viable."

Unlike the steering input system already mentioned or other anti-fatigue systems that rely on specialised camera systems that monitor the drooping eyelids of tiring drivers, the NeuroSky system could provide a more accurate measure of driver alertness.

"EEG produces a tiny signal; however, the electronics are advancing, and researchers are getting better at working out how to filter out interference, so at some point [making use of] it should be possible," Louise Reyner of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, in the U.K. told the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "What remains to be seen is whether NeuroSky have reached that point yet."

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