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Emergency alarm for motorcyclists - originated from SAFER - on IVA's 100 List

Mar, 04 2020

An ordinary smartphone can be used to detect traffic accidents. That is the simple but brilliant idea behind the Detecht app, which already has gained positive response from motorcyclists and SOS Alarm. Now, the project has been selected for IVA’s 100 List.​

​For the second consecutive year, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) presents its 100 List, which highlights current and important research. On the list 2020, research that focuses on sustainability is brought to the fore. The purpose is to promote researchers and companies to find each other, and together be able to create innovations and new business opportunities.

"It is fantastic that our research is on the list”, says Stefan Candefjord, Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and one of the originators of the algorithm on which the app is based. “Hopefully, this will give us opportunities to find new partners to further develop functionality and usability. Furthermore, our project is selected to be presented at IVA’s Research2Business Summit on March 18, where I will participate.”

Detecht is a social app aimed at motorcyclists that can save lives via automatic emergency alarm to 112. Using the built-in sensors in the driver’s own mobile phone, the app is able to detect patterns in movement data that distinguish a crash from normal driving.

The project started as a pre-study at SAFER 2014 and has since developed in a positive way. Magnus Granström, SAFER's director comments on the positive news:
"This is exactly how SAFER's research platform is supposed to work. We do joint, excellent research that can then form the basis for utilization in society in the form of innovations and products at our partners".

Collaboration between researchers and students
Through an advantageous collaboration with Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship, the company Detecht Technologies AB was formed in 2018. The app has been successfully tested on Swedish roads during the motorcycle season of 2019. The crashes that have occurred have been detected correctly, and the alarm chain has worked according to plan. Additionally, the number of false alarms has been low. SOS Alarm has evaluated the function and decided to include the app in its regular alarm preparedness.

“It is great that the tests show such positive results, and that the concept is proved to work all the way from motorcyclist to alarm”, Stefan Candefjord continues. “As far as I know, this is the first road safety app evaluated and implemented by SOS Alarm.”
 

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New features on its way
Work is in progress to integrate more features into the app. This may include such components as extended safety features showing advance information on potential hazards and accident prone roads, or to recommended routes based on the driver’s preferences.

Commercial interest is starting to increase as well. So far, more than 60 000 downloads of the app have been made, most of them in Sweden, but there is also a growing interest from the international market.

“Motorcyclists are particularly exposed in traffic, and they have a high demand for innovations that contribute to increased road traffic safety”, says Stefan Candefjord. “Other unprotected road users, such as cyclists, horse riders and all-terrain vehicle drivers, could also benefit from our technology.”

Artificial dummy also on the list
Although standardized crash tests have made car journeys considerably safer over the past 30 years, they have not been totally comprehensive – especially not for oblique frontal collisions. Researchers at Chalmers have developed a crash test dummy that now sets a new, life-saving standard for safety in passenger cars.

“We wanted to contribute to a new test standard for oblique collisions. The dummy used previously turned out to be too rigid in the shoulder and did not give a fair representation of how an actual person reacts to a crash that throws the body forward obliquely”, says Mats Svensson, professor at the Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences.

Read the full article: Artificial dummy shoulder saves lives​