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Road Rage Mood Changer

 Just because you're crazy doesn't mean your car has to suffer
  (+18, -1)(+18, -1)
(+18, -1) 		  [vote for,
against]

The exercise bike I use has a pair of sensors built into the handlebars that measure my pulse rate as I'm cycling along and shows the rate on a small display screen. If the pulse rate goes too high a blinking heart will also appear on the display.

Driving home it occurred to me that I was holding the steering wheel pretty much the same way I hold the handlebars. It wouldn't be hard to design the same kind of pulse rate monitor on the underside of the steering wheel. With a safety feature like that my car would have a chance to save itself if I lost my temper because some idiot cut me off. As I chased him down my pulse rate would start rising. At some point, say 175 beats per minute, a voice would come from the steering wheel telling me to knock it off. It wouldn't always say the same thing either. Sometimes it would try to humor me down, sometimes embarass me down.

—longshot9999, Dec 14 2004

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       A pressure sensor on the steering wheel might be a good indicator too.   

       Maybe some sort of motion detection – specifically, a jerk sensor on the rear bumber.
—Detly, Dec 15 2004
   

       Good idea [longshot]. Can you think of a way to distinguish between situations where the pulse is elevated due to anger and those where you're in danger (eg. near miss/accident/trying to get away from something) when such a message could be counter-productive?
—DocBrown, Dec 15 2004
   

       no pressure on the steering wheel at all will slowly bring your car to a halt.
—po, Dec 15 2004
   

       DocBrown - Hmm...we could probably cross 'accident' off the list since we'd probably let go of the steering wheel when we got out of the car to check the damage. After a 'near miss' it wouldn't hurt to have the steering wheel humor me down. As for 'trying to get away from something'....at the moment I can't think of a way to distinguish between an elevated pulse from that as opposed to an elevated pulse from anger. Have to give it a little more thought.
—longshot9999, Dec 15 2004
   

       Maybe a small fluffy puppy could pop out of the dashboard. Bun for [po]'s dead man's handle as well - don't think this has been implemented in a car yet.
—wagster, Dec 15 2004
   

       Or play the sound of a police siren over the car stereo speakers, and project a flashing light against the rear window.
—krelnik, Dec 15 2004
   

       If I were a more flippant man I would have given this idea a bun for the tag line alone. As it is, I like the idea, so you got one anyway. Other sounds it could play could be soothing rain or waterfall sounds, whalesong or the sound of annoying TV characters being executed messily. That'd calm me down.
—harderthanjesus, Dec 15 2004
   

       Favorite song list or somesuch.
—RayfordSteele, Dec 15 2004
   

       maybe a Catatonia tune ?
—neilp, Dec 15 2004
   

       [mood changer] Federation of Planets term in Karst language for the class of intoxicants.....alcohol, inhalants, sparkers, etc.   

       See Rebecca Ore, Becoming Alien and the following two books.   

       Excellent fiction, what it will be when it is. [or is already]   

       I could endorse this as it is presented, though. Think "Mystery Men". "Patience......wearing out......Freeway frustration.....rising......"
—normzone, Dec 15 2004
   

       Surely the stuff from which mood rings are made would work.
—lintkeeper2, Dec 17 2004
   

       po's dead man's handle would make no-hand driving out on those long straight empty highways very difficult.
—oxen crossing, Dec 18 2004
   

       RE: a road-rage mood car. Perhaps a Rage-Roadster? Maybe a Model-R?
—Aegir, Dec 18 2004
   


 

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