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Driving a car as diabetic can be dangerous both for the driver and the other traffic participants. If a hypoglycemic attack occurs while the diabetic is at the wheel it can result in serious accidents if the ill person loses consciousness; sometimes an attack can be felt with enough time in advance, but it’s still risky.
So Medtronic, a company specialized in medical technology, came up with the M-Powered Concept Car, which features an on-board glucose-monitoring system and was presented at the 68th Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association.
How it works: the diabetic has to wear a continuous glucose-monitoring system (CGMS), which sends data via Bluetooth to a display in the car dashboard which shows real-time data about blood sugar level. A planned system could also dial a hospital if it detects abnormal levels of blood glucose or if the driver fails to respond to prompts.
However, it is yet unclear if the car will ever enter production or when it will do so.
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The new Night View system from Toyota aims to increase road safety for both drivers and pedestrians, by highlighting anyone on foot in the vehicle’s way. While the older Night View system superimposed the road on the windshield, the new version, seen on the Crown Hybrid, displays the road on the LCD meter. The upside is that the windshield stays clear - the downside is that the driver should keep looking up and down to get a good idea about the road ahead of him.
The system employs pattern recognition to identify pedestrians and, when spotted, surrounds their location, as well as the whole screen, with a yellow band. However, conditions such as high speed (over 60km/h), intense darkness or wipers operating during the rain will decrease accuracy.
Although the Night View system can only identify pedestrians now, Toyota aims to add features for recognizing bicycles and animals.
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Remember the Driving LED Emoticon? Well, if the options it offered weren’t enough, now you can go for the Bling Unit.
This time the messages are influenced by hip-hop vocabulary, so if you’re a fan of street style this is the gadget for you. The Bling Unit comes with 5 built-in messages: “Holla”, “Phat! Thank you”, “Sorry Homey”, “Chill Out Homey”, and “What Ever” and it attaches to your rear window with a suction cup. The remote stays with you, on the windscreen or in the glove compartment, and the 4 AA batteries that power the main unit should last you 4 months.
A Korean online store is selling a peculiar device. The CallMe Prism-i LCD Display is apparently meant to attach to your rear window, letting the other drivers know what your phone number is.
The question on everybody’s lips is: Why? In case you step on the breaks too hard and the car behind you crashes you, so the driver can track you down if you try to run? In case a woman driver is so smitten by your good looks that she wants to take you out?
Perhaps someone who knows Korean can enlighten us.
I think safe driving should be everyone’s main concern - though unfortunately it obviously isn’t. But, if you’re not going to go out of your way for safety, at least let technology help you.
That’s probably what Mitchell Brown, a student of the University of New South Wales, thought when he designed the Tracer HUD. The device, entered in the Australian Design Award competition, is aimed at young drivers. A Heads Up Display (HUD) projected on the windscreen lets the driver know his speed at any time. If the driver of the vehicle exceeds a pre-determined speed limit, the device will record and notify a nominated party of the violation via SMS, so users will be encouraged even more to drive responsibly.
The system is completely independent, as it only requires power from the car battery via the cigarette lighter port, and the speed is detected via a GPS connection; therefore, the Tracer HUD can be retrofitted into older cars.
More photos after the jump.
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How many times were you bored while driving? Not anymore. You can start prepare yourself for a career in showbiz. Justin Timberlake, watch out!
This GPS device with karaoke was found by people at ShinyShiny while visiting CES 2008, in Las Vegas:
I watched Star Trek since I was 12, I think. I started with The Next Generation, I wasn’t really caught by James T. Kirk, but captain Picard and his crew fired my imagination. And the holodeck was a marvelous place, making everything possible. The car in the movie below seems a smaller version of that holodeck.
Now, when I saw the video above, all I could think was StarTrek, StarTrek! I don’t get what this car is good for, I don’t know if it may be driven around, but it really looks cool from the outside. I am looking for more data on it right now. If you have anything, please fire a comment so I can update this post.
Rear view cameras aren’t a system you can find on any car. They are quite expensie to add on old cars and you only can find them on the most expensive cars of today.
Panasonic just announced, though, they will provide an attachable system for any car, at a reasonable price. The system will provide a 320×240 pixels monitor, with an input for the camera and another input for any other video device (you can use it to watch dvd’s). When the shift lever moves in reverse, the camera attached may be automatically presented on the monitor.
The system will be available in Japan starting with the 17h of December and you will probably see it in a short time somewhere close to you.
From now on, the owners of the Land Rover LR3 / Discovery 3 will have the option of equipping their car with an Alpine fully integrated rear seat entertainment system. The system includes a 6 stack DVD changer mounted in the boot of car, two 6.5” widescreen displays mounted in front headrests, plus AUX input for games console or camcorders.
Keith Price, Alpine’s OEM manager stated:“The components are securely fitted, tested and designed specifically for Land Rover. This allows us to eliminate many of the problems of safety, interference and usability of aftermarket solutions that customers don’t like. The bespoke software allows front seat passengers control of the system too, increasing convenience and avoiding unnecessary stops to turn the system on or change DVD. It all helps to make the journey a little more pleasant.”
Among all those pimped cars shown these days at the SEMA Show, here’s something really cool. This Chrysler 300C has some impressive LED-equipped wheels, with each one containing its own color display. No idea when this will be available on the market or how much would it cost.
View one more short video after the jump.
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