Facial recognition coming to Lincoln Corsair as partnerships formed for automotive biometrics

Several companies in the automotive space have recently unveiled new partnerships or products showcasing the potential of biometrics in the car industry. Joint venture Rheinmetall Dermalog SensorTec made its public debut at the InCabin trade show in Brussels this week and Lincoln confirmed its 2023 Corsair model will offer biometric tech, while Smart Eye partnered with ams Osram to deliver biometric sensing for enhanced driver monitoring and passenger safety.

Lincoln Corsair 2023 to feature facial recognition

Lincoln, the luxury vehicle division of American automobile manufacturer Ford, confirmed its 2023 Corsair model will offer a combination of facial recognition, sensor, and GPS capabilities.

These technologies will be delivered as part of Lincoln’s ActiveGlide highway driving system (called Blue Cruise in Ford models), which allows hands-free driving on over 130,000 miles of roads in North America.

Additionally, the new Corsair system will also enable the vehicle to check traffic and change lanes when the driver hits the turn signal stalk. According to Fox News, it can also automatically lower speeds for upcoming turns and alert drivers to vehicles and pedestrians, among other things.

Lincoln is already taking orders on the 2023 Corsair, with initial deliveries scheduled for early next year. The Lincoln Grand Touring Corsair version with ActiveGlide will cost roughly US$8,000 more than its ‘basic’ counterpart.

The announcement comes months after Ford was awarded a patent for facial recognition systems built into vehicles that would recognize drivers and unlock the doors on sight.

SensorTec launches biometric tool to prevent accidents

Rheinmetall Dermalog SensorTec is a joint venture of the tech enterprise Rheinmetall AG and Dermalog Identification Systems, one of Europe’s largest biometrics providers.

SensorTec unveiled its biometric product for the first time at the InCabin tradeshow in the Autoworld Museum in Brussels on Thursday.

According to a company announcement, the strategic goal of SensorTec is to integrate biometric technology, artificial intelligence (AI) software and digitization solutions in the vehicle interior to prevent accidents due to inattentiveness.

Dermalog owns numerous patents related to biometric technology. It has also collaborated on more than 250 major international projects in the field of human biometrics.

Most recently, the company has been working with officials of the Land Transportation Office in the Philippines to help improve the delivery of a biometrics project that was previously deemed in danger because of dissatisfaction with its execution.

Smart Eye Partners with ams Osram

ams Osram has joined forces with human behavior prediction specialist Smart Eye to work on driver monitoring systems (DMS) and occupant monitoring systems (OMS).

By merging Smart Eye interior sensing software with ams Osram’s dot illumination technology in the ‘Icarus: Structured Light Evaluation Kit,’ the company will design solutions that can accurately detect the driver and passenger status and position.

The proof-of-concept (POC) technology is designed to leverage existing architecture inside a vehicle to efficiently and cost-effectively provide high-performance 3D sensing capabilities for DMS and OMS applications.

Icarus features include support for high-precision augmented reality heads-up display (AR-HuD), secure driver authentication, and advanced body position to enhance road safety by delivering inputs to airbag deployment decisions and pre-crash safety measures.

The low-cost update can reportedly be installed near infrared-based DMS hardware without the need to overhaul an entire system.

The Icarus POC comes nearly a year after Smart Eye acquired behavioral software solutions developer iMotions.

As for ams Osram, the company partnered with trinamiX in July to develop a solution that enables biometric face authentication suited to mobile payments from behind an OLED screen.

Article Topics

ams Osram  |  automotive biometrics  |  biometrics  |  consumer electronics  |  facial recognition  |  monitoring  |  personalization  |  Rheinmetall Dermalog SensorTec  |  Smart Eye