Accidents on the road are the biggest cause of deaths in the world. Because of this, the prevention of the fatalities is an important target of study and investigation for most of car makers. In 2014 there were 1.25 million deaths on the road worldwide, 20% of crashes and 12% of near-crashes were caused by drowsy drivers. This issue as well as other driver conditions, such as heart failure, are the focus of this project.

This dissertation aims to develop a monitoring solution to implement in automotive world, to measure the heartbeat of the driver.

Heart rate monitoring from a distance is a powerful tool for health care comparatively to alternative techniques for long-term medical monitoring that require direct contact such as electrodes, oxymeter and piezoelectric sensors. Since the heart rate changes along the different stages of drowsiness / fatigue, it is possible to evaluate the drowsy state of the driver using Heart Rate Variability (HRV), by measuring along the frequency spectrum of the heartbeat. After the analysis of the existing non-contact methods to measure heartbeat, this dissertation will focus on the use of a sensor radar that includes the versatile ability to function at a distance through the driver's clothing. The radar sensor that will be mounted on the driver ́s seat uses radio waves to detect the heart ́s acceleration and the drivers breathing movement. This data can be complemented with other technologies such EEG (Electroencephalography) and eye tracker (monitoring of head and eye movements) to detected the drowsiness state with more reliability. [1][2]

As this signals may have noise, harmonics and other vehicle induced issues, so data filtering will be required. The aim is to extract data like heart rate, signal frequency, and breathing.[3]

This master thesis will be developed at University of Minho, within the partnership project (INNOVCAR: The Cockpit of the future) with Bosch Car Multimedia. The main objective is to develop a heart monitoring concept for further validation and development. The concept solution must be efficient, comfortable to the user, reliable and have low cost. The monitoring of the vital signs of the human body, can then be used to ultimately avoid accidents and deaths on the road. Finally using this system, it is possible to trigger responses like activating an alarm, stop the car, or even call emergency assistance if needed.