Do you have a tendency to fall asleep when you get tired doing something monotonous? Imagine the disastrous results if a driver did actually feel so sleepy while driving at night that he fell asleep! Researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid  in Spain have come up with a special solution to this problem. Here’s what they did.

They have designed a car system which is able to detect pedestrians up to 40 meters away from the car in poor visibility. The system uses infra red cameras to capture body heat to confirm the presence of pedestrians in the field of vision. In some versions of the system a warning is issued to the driver if a pedestrian is spotted too close to the car.

In an automated car system the same process is used, but it brings the car to a halt on its own if the pedestrian is in the danger zone. So even if the driver nods off at the wheel the car will not let him cause a tragic accident. Of course these systems are still under the testing stage at Intelligent Systems Laboratory of the university, but car makers the world over will be watching the progress of this science experiment with great attention.