EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — Two students from Eden Prairie High School have the best reply if anyone asks how they spent their summer... they invented a device to help curb distracted drivers.
Meet the brains behind "EyeDAS".
"Since we're going to be drivers soon and distracted driving has impacted all of us at the club in some way or the other, we thought it would be nice to make a device to help reduce distracted driving and have a greater impact," said Eden Prairie High School student Yash Dagade.
Dagade and his friend Rahul Chimata are part of the school's "Distraction Free Driving Club". The two upperclassmen spent their summer creating EyeDAS, which stands for Eye, Distraction, Alertness System.
"Essentially it is a camera that we hope would fit on your rearview mirror and then using A.I. it would detect if you're distracted and then auditory and visual clues will help you regain focus," said Dagade.
If you were driving and looked down at your phone you'd hear a loud beeping noise. Looking in the back seat for too long... another loud beep. Any distraction while driving... the beeping will continue.
EyeDAS would also be paired with an app that would give you your driving stats with the goal of making you a safer driver.
Although this is just their first prototype, Dagade and Chimata's goal is to have an EyeDAS in every single vehicle.
"The ideal solution is that this is all about accessibility. A lot of cars and expensive brands typically already have these technologies. In a sense its not really revolutionary, its about giving access to this kind of life saving technology to different types of people."
Dagade and Chimata are working on the next phase of their project hoping to work out the kinks with the final goal of getting EyeDAS mass produced. The two are hoping to study mechanical engineering after high school.
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