PRODUCT INNOVATIONS
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STMicroelectronics and Mobileye
System-on-Chip for vision-based driver assistance systems
STMicroelectronics and Mobileye announced that the two companies have
successfully sampled the second generation of their system-on-chip
EyeQ2 for the vision-based driver assistance segment of the automotive
market.
The implementation of this type of technology is fundamental for
increasing safety on ever more congested roads. According to research
(Autosafe 2006) the total number of casualties on the roads of USA,
Europe and Japan was 94,000 and regional programs are being launched to
reduce this to 63,000 by 2010. It has been shown that if drivers
reacted half a second earlier, they would avoid approximately half of
all accidents. In Europe, one third of accidents are due to lane
changing or leaving the road, and overall two thirds are due to lack of
attention.
The first generation of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, implemented
on EyeQ1, are already in production at several car makers and offer
functionality such as lane-departure warning (LDW), adaptive headlight
control, traffic-sign recognition, collision avoidance through
radar/camera fusion and forward collision warning that can drastically
reduce the number of accidents. The LDW is akin to a ‘virtual
rumble strip’ that alerts drivers when they cross lane markings
– a common factor in many head-on collisions and other serious
accidents.
“By using an audible warning upon an unintentional deviation from
the driving lane, these lane-departure warning systems create an
intelligent rumble strip imitation that alerts the driver even when
there are no physical strips on the shoulder of the road,”
explained Amnon Shashua, Ph.D., Chairman of Mobileye N.V. and the Sachs
professor of computer science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in
Israel.
As a significant portion of run-off-road crashes are attributed to
driving while drowsy, to the point of falling asleep at the wheel,
Mobileye’s lane-detection technologies can play an instrumental
role in reducing accidents and fatalities for multi-tasking motorists
who also log long hours.
The new generation ADAS being sampled now takes this active safety
concept to a new level. By increasing the processing power six fold,
the EyeQ2 introduces added functionality, such as pedestrian detection
and well as the previously mentioned lane-departure warning (LDW),
adaptive headlight control, traffic-sign recognition, collision
avoidance and forward collision warning on one vision processor. The
EyeQ2 takes input from two high-resolution image sensors and has
video-output capabilities that include graphic overlay.
Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users and in the EU alone, it
is estimated that there are 9,000 fatalities and 200,000 injuries from
road accidents involving cars colliding with pedestrians or cyclists.
Pedestrian detection is in development with a major European OEM and is
slated for production on EyeQ2 bundled together with additional
features including LDW and collision-mitigation functions.
“The detection capabilities of the EyeQ2, even in difficult
environmental conditions, allow for both notification and for crash
mitigation, increasing safety for road users dramatically,” said
Marco Monti, Vice President of STMicroelectronics’ Automotive
Product Group. “By combining ST’s automotive design and
manufacturing expertise with Mobileye’s strength in video-based
driver-assist systems we provide an optimal solution for innovative,
automotive-market proven, and cost-competitive solutions for the
automotive market.”
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