AUTOMOTIVE
Azcom CabinGuard®, a Vehicle In-cabin Monitoring Solution
It is becoming increasingly important for automobile makers to introduce advanced in-cabin sensing capabilities for enhanced safety and comfort. Among the contactless technologies that can be used for in-cabin monitoring, mmWave radar is gaining enormous traction due to its strengths like insensitivity to lighting conditions, high sensitivity to motion, and highly accurate estimation of velocity, range and angle of arrival.
Based around this radar technology, Azcom Technology offers an automotive-compliant software solution (CabinGuard) supporting all the key in-cabin monitoring features. These features enable OEMs to build a flexible combination of end-user applications, such as NCAP Child Presence Detection, Intelligent Seatbelt Reminder, Airbag Management Systems, Anti-intrusion Alarms and Driver Health Monitoring. The solution runs on Texas Instruments’ mmWave AWRx SoC, a highly accurate single-chip radar sensor family, integrating best-in-class DSP and MCU.
Child Presence Detection (CPD)
It is globally recognized that child deaths due to heatstroke suffered inside unattended cars is a severe and entirely avoidable problem that deserves special attention. Global agencies like NCAP have decided to address this important safety issue by including the Child Presence Detection feature in their roadmap and rewarding it considerably. CabinGuard® CPD feature detects the presence of a child inside the car, even in the case when a child has fallen in footwells and raise an alarm when appropriate.
Occupant Localization (OL)
This feature accurately detects whether and how a car cabin is occupied by passengers. Principal applications of this feature are intelligent seat belt reminder and airbag management. One can also monitor occupancy from distance, especially for autonomous vehicles. Use of radar avoids many privacy concerns associated with solutions like webcams or remote video surveillance. Such applications can also be deployed in public transport systems like buses, trains – again without privacy concerns associated with video monitoring, which in many countries are not even legally allowed.
Vital Signs Monitoring (VS)
A mmWave radar sensor is capable of measuring chest displacements due to breathing and heartbeat. Using this capability, CabinGuard can monitor breathing and heart of a vehicle occupant, and can be used for driver’s vital sign monitoring, including drowsiness. It can also be used for post-crash monitoring system.
Occupant Classification (OC)
CabinGuard Occupant Classification feature, in addition to identifying and localizing the presence of a passenger inside a vehicle, also accurately classifies them as child and adult. This enables better management of safety functions, such as seat belt reminder and intelligent airbag systems.
Intrusion Detection (ID)
Azcom’s CabinGuard® can help protect not only the passengers inside the vehicle, but also the car itself and its contents from theft and tampering.
The immediate area around the vehicle and its interior are continuously monitored by the cabin-mounted radar sensor to detect attempted intrusion, such as breaking a window. The presence of people in the locked car is quickly and reliably detected thanks to the radar sensor’s special ability to track movement. Azcom’s CabinGuard® ID can trigger an alarm for both presence and intrusion in the cabin, even if only an arm or hand enters the cabin.
Key Characteristics
Automotive compliant – A-SPICE and ISO26262
Used by Tier-1 vendors in series-production
Meets EURO-NCAP roadmap for Child Presence Detection
Easily tunable for different vehicle geometry and seat configuration.
Supports parked and driving state
Easily integrable with body electronics via CAN interface
Supports 60 GHz bands
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Other Applications with Radar Sensors
MmWave radar sensors can be adopted in a wide range of sensing applications. Azcom Technology offering of value-added R&D services helps customers developing solutions for different domains based on this technology.