Deborah Jenks

Leonard Santos (Santos)

Several of you have asked for more information on the work that our Foundation is funding at MIT to develop a way to detect distracted driving and alert drivers of their distraction. That software is being field tested as this is written and the following short Youtube video offers a sketch of how it works. The MIT scientist featured in the video has been working on this for over three years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMOD9TYRtr8

Leonard Santos (Santos)

When the Santos Family Foundation funded the development of driver monitoring technology at MIT, it was with the hope that the work would make it possible for drivers to be alerted to their inattention to the important task of driving a vehicle. MIT turned its research over to Affectiva, a Cambidge-based pioneer in driver monitoring. With the acquisition of Affectiva by Smart Eye, a leader in eye tracking technology, we are closer than ever to having the work we funded become part of a movement toward the installation of driver monitoring in all vehicles. Countless lives may be saved by this technology.

Coincidentally, on June 16, the Senate Commerce Committe reported out the Surface Transportation Safety Act including Senator Markey's bill which requires the DOT to study how driver-monitoring systems can prevent driver distraction, driver disengagement, automation complacency, and the foreseeable misuse of advanced driver-assist systems.

John Gamel

Well, as we near the end of what has been a pretty awful year, filled with a certain amount of deprivation and difficulty, I hope all members of the Class of '63 have a truly wonderful 2022! Thereafter, we can all look forward to another great event in 2023 back on the NMH hill, in Gill, MA. I hope to see everyone's smiling (and perhaps mask-less) face!