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This AI-based sensor will help save children and pets left inside vehicles, scientists say
- University of Waterloo researchers aim to have the device adopted as standard equipment in all vehicles
- The wireless, disc-shaped sensor prevents vehicle doors from locking and sounds an alarm when it detects a child or pet has been left inside a vehicle
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Tracy Quin Shanghai
Stories of children left inside vehicles can be the stuff of nightmares.
In June, a 4½-year-old kindergarten pupil in the southern Chinese island of Hainan died of heatstroke after he was left trapped inside a school bus. That followed another tragedy in April, when a four-year-old girl in the central Chinese province of Hunan died after being left alone by her forgetful father in a locked car for nine hours on a hot day.
It is a worldwide problem that George Shaker, an engineering professor from the University of Waterloo in Canada, and his team of students aim to help solve with the development of a new sensor, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and radar signals, that triggers an alarm when children or pets are left alone in vehicles.
They hope the device will eventually be adopted as standard equipment in all vehicles, Shaker said in a recent phone and email interview.
Recent data suggests there is an urgency to get such technology into cars. Between 2013 and July 2018, there were at least 147 cases in China of children left trapped in vehicles, which resulted in about 40 deaths, according to a recent study by The Beijing News. China is the world’s largest vehicle market.
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