There's no shortage of good ideas around, just a shortage of good hard cash to fund them.
Two groups of researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory were
getting an early start promoting their projects at the Tennessee
Technology Summit Tuesday -- both in search of profitable partnerships,
both in the area of automotive technology.
Inside the Knoxville Convention Center -- the site of the combined
summit and annual Tennessee Technology Conference, or WATTec -- Daniel
Tufano and Ron Harris ready their display on the showroom floor.
The summit allows scientists, lawmakers, government officials and
business types to mix and hopefully match interests that will help
boost the economy of what's known as the Tennessee Technology Corridor
-- an area stretching from northeast Tennessee to Huntsville, Ala.
The Dodge Intrepid Tufano and Harris are working on has been outfitted
with the latest in automotive technology -- a heads-up display for
night vision capabilities, a radar collision-warning system on the
front and back of the car, a lane-tracking device.
But Tufano, an experimental psychologist with the Computer Science and
Mathematics Division, and Harris, the project's engineer from the
Instrument and Controls Division, won't be studying the technology per
se, says Tufano.
"The idea is not for us to develop any of the technology that's going
into new cars ... but we want to do research on what these new
pieces of technology might do to drivers, good and possibly
bad," he says.
That's why, nearly invisibly, Harris has rigged up tiny cameras and
human monitors -- to measure heart rate, skin conductivity, respiration
rate and muscle tension -- and connected them to a computer system in
the trunk where data will be collected indicating whether these types
of technology are help or hindrance.
"That's what we're playing with here," says Tufano, as Harris examines
two screens fastened to the inside of the trunk door, "so that if some
incident happens on the road, we have a picture of the driver's
face, his hands, what's in front on the road, what's in back on the
road, right side, left side."
The tests will require human subjects, probably local volunteers.
Tufano is especially interested in examining the reactions of young and
older drivers.
The group also recently landed a contract with the Department of
Transportation to conduct similar kinds of tests on computer simulators
back at the lab. While the researchers will be restricted to more
subdued observations in the real-life tests, the simulations will allow
Tufano and his colleagues to examine accident scenarios, the more
drastic result of driver distraction.
ORNL has funded the development of the computer system so far. Now
Tufano and Harris need more funding -- hopefully from the
Transportation Department, says Tufano -- to begin official
research.
That's why they're at the Summit, he says.
Outside, in front of the Convention Center, Fred Goldberg, a Swedish
engineer, demonstrates a technology that could allow drivers to
lock their cars and throw away the keys.
Goldberg simply inserts a card into a scanner, installed inside a shiny
reddish-colored Volvo, and presto, the car roars to life.
In the card, an imbedded chip carries information that the person is
licensed and permitted to drive the vehicle.
His daughter's death following an encounter with an unlicensed drunken
driver spurred Goldberg to develop the device in partnership
with Volvo.
The card could carry information requiring the driver to take a
breath test for alcohol content before starting the car and at various
points during the trip.
The card could also contain information about the driver's
health, so that in case of an accident, police and paramedics would
know the person's specific health conditions or allergies.
Oak Ridge National Lab's part in the project, said Patricia Hu from the
Energy Division, is to examine ways the KitteLock system, as it's
called, could be implemented in the United States.
ORNL researchers organized an international conference on the subject
last September, and, said Hu, the lab is now looking for backing to
conduct a test case.
"Public acceptance is one big issue," she says. "People ask, What if I
need to get the car going in an emergency, but this is not my vehicle
to get started? What if my husband is drunk driving, for example, and
then he borrowed my vehicle card? ... And what happens if you lost the
card and you can't get anywhere?
"The best way the workshop is for is to get the ball rolling, I think,
just to get people to start talking ... ."
Hu envisions using the system first on "hard-core, high-risk folks,"
such as drunken drivers with multiple offenses.
"... And then if good drivers like you and I see the beauty of
this," she says, "then maybe in 10 years we (will) all agree to have
this."
The beauty of the system, Goldberg explains, is that, in addition to
monitoring the driving activities of DUI offenders, the computerized
system would reduce car thefts and could possibly allow owners to
remotely stop their cars if an unlicensed or undesirable driver
had whisked them away.
"We can also store the information that the traffic insurance is paid,"
he says.
Goldberg has spent $1.5 million to develop the system so far and
expects to spend another $1.5 million in continued research.
Hu says ORNL would require about $300,000 to begin testing the system
on cars. She already has a volunteer, she says.
"We, in fact, have ... a police chief in Connecticut who has
volunteered 10 of his police cruisers to start," she says. "So we're
just waiting for DOT to say yes we believe that will work."
Deputy secretary of the Department of Transportation will be in
Knoxville today attending the summit.
The summit began this morning in Knoxville and will continue Thursday in Oak Ridge.
