If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives): dui

The following is a wonderfully creative answer from Saatchi & Saatchi, germany to a creative directive to come up with a way to sell a taxi service. Well, at least to men.

About the Piss-Screen

1. The Brief

Frankfurt Taxi Services asked us to do something for them in bars, so that people would take a taxi, instead of driving home drunk with their own car. We thought “Right”, drinking and driving isn´t a game and started thinking.

2. Our Solution - The Piss-Screen

The Piss-Screen is a pressure-sensitive Inlay for Urinals, to play a game with your pee. The game is displayed on a Screen above the urinal. We teamed up with bars across Frankfurt, and installed the Piss-Screen in the mens Restrooms. We designed a driving game in the style of Need for Speed with the clue, that people would have a terrible crash into the oncoming-traffic if their reaction time was too slow.

After the crash we placed the message.

3. The Message

“Too pissed to drive?”

“Take a Taxi instead!”

“Call: 069-733030″

4. The Effect
The effect was pretty simple, the more drinks people had, the more they had to go to the toilet. Because you will normally not expect such a thing as the piss-screen on a ordinary toilet, we and the client were quiet sure that people would remember that drink-driving isn`t a game.

5. Links

[Play the game as a simulation]

[See the blog for the whole Story]

6. The Team

Creative Director: Sebastian Schier

Art Directors: Patrick Ackmann, Martin Anderle, Christian Bartsch

Text: William John

Technical Developement & Production: Christian Bartsch

Programming: Martin Anderle, Christian Bartsch

Inlay Design & Modelbuilding: Markus Fischer [ideenfischa.de]

Technical Support: Martin Nawrath, Wolfgang Staude, KHM Köln

7. Terms of Use

Any product, process or technology referred to in this Site is licensed under european patent law. You may not distribute, modify, transmit, reuse, reproduce, re-post or use the copyrighted materials on this Site for public or commercial purposes, including the text, images, audio and video, without the express written consent of Christian Bartsch and SAATCHI & SAATCHI, Frankfurt. All rights reserved. Copyright 2006 by Christian Bartsch and SAATCHI & SAATCHI, Frankfurt.

Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main HRB 10 899
Ust-Id. DE 811538026
Sitz der Gesellschaft: Frankfurt am Main

Japanese car company developing a car with built-in sensors to detect drunkenness of driver, locking ignition if needed. OPPAMA, Japan (Reuters) --

Beer-breaths, beware.

A new concept car with breathalyzer-like detection systems may provide even greater traction for Japanese efforts to keep impaired drivers off the road.

Nissan's alcohol-detection sensors check odor, sweat and driver awareness, issuing a voice alert from the navigation system and locking up the ignition if necessary.

Odor sensors on the driver and passenger seats read alcohol levels, while a detector in the gear-shift knob measures the perspiration of the driver's palm when starting the car.

Other carmakers with detection systems include Sweden's Volvo , which has developed technology in which drivers blow into a measuring unit in the seat belt before an engine can start.

But Nissan's car includes a mounted camera that monitors alertness by eye scan, ringing bells and issuing a voice message in Japanese or English if a driver should pull over and rest.

The car technology is still in development, but general manager Kazuhiro Doi says the combination of detection systems will ultimately keep an eye on who's behind the wheel.

"We've placed odor detectors and a sweat sensor on the gear shift, but for example if the gear-shift sensor was bypassed by a passenger using it instead of the driver, the facial recognition system would be used," said Doi.

Also keeping a short leash on drivers, car seat belts tighten if drowsiness is detected, while an on-road monitor checks if a car is keeping its lane properly.

Japan's No. 3 carmaker, which competes with Toyota and Honda, has no specific timetable for marketing, but aims to yoke all technology to cut the number of fatalities involving its vehicles to half 1995 levels by 2015.

Nissan's Doi says they still have to distill exactly what impairment means: "If you drink one beer, it's going to register, so we need to study what's the appropriate level for the system to activate."

Odor Sensors placed throughout the car detect the presence of alcohol and a facial monitoring system can recognize drowsy and drunken behavior.

Shift Knob Sensor:

1) A hi-sensitivity alcohol odor sensor is built into the transmission shift knob, which is able to detect the presence of alcohol in the perspiration of the driver's palm as he or she attempts to start driving. When the alcohol-level detected is above the pre-determined threshold, the system automatically locks the transmission, immobilizing the car. A "drunk-driving" voice alert is also issued via the car navigation system.

Passenger Seat Sensor:

2) Additional alcohol odor sensors are also incorporated into the driver's and passenger seats to detect the presence of alcohol in the air inside the vehicle cabin. When alcohol is detected, the system issues both a voice alert and a message alert on the navigation system monitor.

Facial Monitoring System:

A camera is mounted on the instrument cluster facing the driver to monitor the driver's face:

The system is calibrated to monitor the driver's state of consciousness through their eyes. When the system detects signs of drowsiness, a voice and message alert is triggered via the navigation system. Additionally, a seat-belt mechanism is activated, which tightens around the driver to gain his or her immediate attention.

Driving Behavior
By constantly monitoring the operational behavior of the vehicle (e.g. sensing if the vehicle is drifting out of its driving lane), the system can identify signs of inattentiveness or distraction in the driver. When the system detects such behavior, voice and message alerts are issued via the navigation system. The seat-belt alert mechanism is also activated, tightening around the driver to gain immediate attention.

This concept car was developed as an exploratory platform to showcase breakthrough technologies that could potentially be applied in future production cars, part of an ongoing program from Nissan contributing towards preventing drunk-driving.

CLICK ABOVE IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

Nissan has already launched and is developing several initiatives to help prevent drunk-driving. In June, the company introduced the "drunk-driving" message alert on its navigation system. In July, Nissan also began testing of a new on-board breathalyzer system in cooperation with several local government authorities in Japan, where an interlock mechanism will immobilize the vehicle if the driver's breath indicates the presence of alcohol above a specified level.

Nissan is taking a holistic approach towards safety that extends beyond the technology built into its vehicles. To achieve a "safe driving environment," Nissan has embarked on the Intelligent Transport System Project (ITS) in Kanagawa Prefecture - aimed at helping to reduce road accidents via the analysis of traffic data collected from on-the-road vehicles and traffic beacons. In Japan, the company's safety vision is to halve the number of traffic fatalities or serious injuries involving Nissan vehicles by 2015 compared with the level in 1995.