Ford's doctor is in - the car seat

The management of health conditions is moving into the car. Photo / Wieck

Ford is developing a seat that monitors a driver's heart rate - another product in the carmaker's move towards in-car health technologies for drivers with medical conditions.

"As always in medicine, the earlier a condition is detected the easier it is to treat and this technology even has the potential to be instrumental in diagnosing conditions drivers were previously unaware they had," said Dr Achim Lindner, medical officer for Ford's European research and innovation centre.

The joint project between Ford and Aachen University in Germany uses six electrode sensors in the backrest to monitor the driver's heart rate.

"The sensors use a specially designed system and carefully researched materials to be able to give a good signal without contact on the skin," Lindner said. "We are still fine-tuning their operation to work with some materials; certain types of synthetic fabric and lamb's wool can cause electrical interference that upsets the signal, but we can achieve a strong signal through 10 layers of cotton."

Although the seat is in the "early stages of development", initial test results were promising. In stationary testing, the seat was compatible with 90-95 per cent of subjects, while mobile testing in a vehicle displayed accurate readings 98 per cent of the time, Ford said.

The seat is intended mainly for those with cardiovascular conditions, but it could also cater to the ageing population.

This month, Ford also said it was using its Sync technology to develop voice-controlled in-car connections to health services and devices such as glucose monitors, diabetes management assistance and asthma management devices.