Car seat that shouts if you’re having a heart attack

Cities are becoming such a stressful environment for drivers that the latest design of car seat has an in-built electrocardiogram (ECG) to monitor health. If the system detects the early signs of a heart attack it alerts the driver.

According to researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IPMS), heart attack and cardiac arrhythmia are the main catalysts of sudden incapacity among drivers causing serious road traffic collisions.

Heart attack warning

Integrated into the driver seat, the ECG continuously monitors the driver’s cardiac activity without any need for direct contact with the skin.

“The non-contact, capacitive ECG measurement device works on the same principle as the classic ECG. That means, we analyze the characteristic course of the ECG and react to the changes to divert a potential emergency situation.” explained Andreas Heinig, Project Leader at Fraunhofer IPMS

The Dresden researchers foresee other applications for the technology including hospital beds or integration into clothing. The prototype of the capacitive ECG measurement system will be presented for the first time at the world’s largest medical trade air, Medica, from 16.-19. November 2015 at the Fraunhofer Institute.

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