DENSO and Xperi announced DENSO will start joint technology development of cabin sensing with FotoNation, an Xperi group company specializing in image recognition technologies.
“The partnership will help DENSO significantly improve the performance of its Driver Status Monitor, an active safety product currently used in commercial vehicles,” the company noted. “Improvements of such products also will accelerate the development of next-generation products to be used in passenger vehicles, including a system to help drivers return to driving mode during Level 3 of autonomous drive.”
This collaboration will combine DENSO’s experience in cabin sensing innovations and FotoNation’s facial image recognition and neural network technologies.
Since 2014, DENSO has provided a Driver Status Monitor for heavy trucks and large sightseeing buses. This advanced safety product uses a cabin camera to capture images of the driver and computer vision technology to detect the driver’s face angle to determine the level of drowsiness. Using its proprietary algorithm to analyze the driver’s eye blinking, DENSO said its driver status monitor can detect driver drowsiness and alert the driver when it judges the driver is distracted or falling asleep at the wheel, to help prevent traffic accidents.
FotoNation has led computer imaging solutions integration for more than 10 years. FotoNation noted it has maintained market leadership in the mobile image recognition segment and its technologies are installed in various devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, drones and security cameras.
“Understanding the status of the driver and engaging them at the right time is an important component for enabling the future of autonomous driving,” said Yukihiro Kato, senior executive director, Information & Safety Systems Business Group of DENSO. “I believe this collaboration with Xperi will help accelerate our innovative ADAS product development by bringing together the unique expertise of both our companies.”
“We are excited to partner with DENSO to innovate in such a dynamic field,” said Jon Kirchner, CEO of Xperi Corporation. “This partnership will play a significant role in paving the way to the ultimate goal of safer roadways through use of our imaging and facial analytics technologies and DENSO’s vast experience in the space.”
