accident

American company Harman International Industries has developed a new safety system to eliminate blind spots that cause thousands of accidents involving pedestrians in the US.

Harman’s new reverse pedestrian detection system, which integrates data from several existing Harman technologies installed in the car, helps reduce accidents that cause injury to 15,000 pedestrians and kills nearly 200 people a year.

Harman Machine Learning senior director Danny Atsmon said: "Despite the introduction of a range of safety technologies found in today’s cars and even with the most attentive drivers, ‘back over’ accidents cause too many deaths and injuries.

"Tragically, over 70 percent of incidents involving children are caused by a parent or relative behind the wheel."

The company also uses the rear camera and sensor in a car to detect pedestrians behind the vehicle.

The new technology can be used to detect small children, between 12 and 23 months of age, who have the most chance of being hit.

According to the company, only the combination of real-time sensory data with driver attention can reduce fatal accidents.

Atsmon added: "No system is infallible, and the driver must still take caution, using mirrors or glancing over their shoulder.

"With HARMAN’s pedestrian detection system, drivers can reverse more safely with confidence."

The reverse pedestrian detection technology combines advanced computer vision methods and a fisheye camera to recognise pedestrians behind a vehicle.

"With HARMAN’s pedestrian detection system, drivers can reverse more safely with confidence."

This is combined with the data received from the ultrasonic sensors for close pedestrian verification.

The new system also uses the steering wheel angle and speed for calculating possible collision trajectories in order to enhance the accuracy of the detection.

Atsmon said: "As we work toward bringing this software to automakers, we have adopted an approach that will enable the software to be housed in existing vehicle infotainment systems to minimise the cost and designed to fit into as many auto makers’ vehicles as possible."

Harman’s new technology helps enhance safety at low costs and is based on software implementation without the need for any additional hardware.

Image: Examples of the reverse pedestrian detection system in use. Photo: courtesy of Harman.