HARMAN adds vital sign sensing and radar-based child presence detection for safer and smarter mobility experiences

HARMAN, an automotive technology company and subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. focused on designing consumer experiences at automotive grade, today announced new features for HARMAN Ready Care, the industry’s first closed-loop interior sensing and tailored interventions product that measures a driver’s eye activity, cognitive load and vital signs to determine the level of focus and attention on the road ahead. Using neuroscience, artificial intelligence and machine learning, Ready Care classifies a driver’s behavior into a focused versus distracted state and initiates a personalized in-cabin response to help mitigate dangerous driving situations, such as stress, anxiety, distraction and drowsiness.

Through the September 2022 HARMAN acquisition of CAARESYS, Ready Care offers market leading in-cabin radar sensing technology. Now, Ready Care adds to its rich feature set contactless measurement of human vital signs such as heart rate, breathing rate and inter-beat levels to determine a driver’s state of well-being. In addition, Ready Care sensors also detect if a child is left unattended in the vehicle.

“Ready Care is an industry first product that is driving real impact for driver safety and well-being and is a key part of HARMAN’s mission to deliver consumer experiences at an automotive grade,” said Armin Prommersberger, Senior Vice President of Product Management, HARMAN International. “With its unique ability to deliver customized and personalized driver interventions via a closed-loop approach, from detections via analysis to tailored interventions like adjusting the temperature, audio settings and vehicle lighting, Ready Care offers solutions and protective intelligence that constantly prioritizes the driver’s well-being.”

HARMAN Ready Care (Photo: Business Wire)

Ready Care is part of HARMAN’s line-up of new products introduced during EXPLORE at CES that are road-ready — and have demonstrated they deliver compelling in-cabin experiences. Each product is designed to work independently to deliver specific vehicle safety, well-being, in-cabin entertainment and connectivity benefits — but also integrates seamlessly with other HARMAN Ready products for an even more enhanced experience. For example, Ready Care is compatible with HARMAN Ready Vision, offering extended situational awareness with enhanced audio/visual alerts when a driver is distracted to bring them back to a more optimal state for driving.

Key features of the upgraded HARMAN Ready Care include:

• Eyes and Mind on Road: An industry-first real-time driver visual and mental cognitive load measurement deciphers when a driver is mentally distracted from driving based on eye activity, neuroscience, and state of mind.
• Vital Sign Sensing: A driver-facing infrared camera or in-cabin radar is used to monitor important driver vital signs such as heart rate, inter-beat intervals, and breathing rate via RPPG (remote photoplethysmography) without the need to wear or use any external devices, which can influence the development of future safety and well-being applications in the vehicle.
• Child Presence Detection: A radar sensor is used for child presence detection (CPD) and general life presence detection. The product can detect occupant life presence in the vehicle after exiting it and will enable the OEM to provide an alert or notification to the driver to inform them of the situation. CPD will become a future NCAP safety requirement in automotive.

Ready Care can initiate multiple and simultaneous in-cabin vehicle intervention responses to mitigate driver drowsiness and distraction, enabling safer mobility experiences. HARMAN Ready Care makes closed-loop in-cabin interventions possible via the Ready Care SDK with supporting APIs, allowing OEMs and other third-party suppliers to integrate any vehicle feature or function as a part of the in-cabin customized interventions against driver drowsiness and distraction. For example, third-party developers like Gentherm can leverage the HARMAN Open SDK to provide in-cabin interventions through its ClimateSense® solution. Other partners will be added and named in the future.

HARMAN Ready Care is offered as a scalable product that is flexible to OEM needs by allowing them to configure specific software bundles, sensors, and the compute platform as desired. For consumers, HARMAN Ready Care delivers enhanced safety and peace of mind by helping to reduce driver distraction and drowsiness, and equipping consumers with greater intelligence to enable safer driving behaviors.