EYES: Overtaking One Step Ahead
One of the great things about Valencia is that you don’t need a car to move around the city. There are no great distances, public transport is efficient and there are no hills to speak of.
Thos who foolishly decide to drive in the city often find they need eyes in the back of their heads, as this ancient city was designed thinking of the horse and cart rather than the car, and is fortunately due for a wide reaching pedestrianisation plan, if the politicians are to be believed, which I don’t recommend.
One aspect of driving that causes problems for many is parking. Many people park by ear rather than using mirrors, stopping only when they hear an ominous ‘crunch’.
For this reason self-parking cars have been developed, especially for the hard of hearing.
Another, much more serious driving challenge is overtaking
Now, researchers at Valencia’ Polytechnic University have developed EYES, a smartphone and tablet app that enables drivers to overtake in safer conditions, although it apparently doesn’t help much if you are taking a call, lighting a cigarette and changing a CD all at the same time as you surge past those ten lorries.
The system has been developed by the Grupo de Redes de Computadores of the Departamento de Informática de Sistemas y Computadores at UPV.
The project came about during a collaboration with the University of Oporto.
The system works by allowing the driver behind to see what the driver in front is seeing, thus reducing the possibility of an erroneous maneuver.
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