CENIT@EA digital solution scores 1st place in GIZ Innovation Fund Community Voting

Did you know that around 1.35 million people die annually due to road accidents? The Centre of Excellence for ICT in East Africa has an innovative idea to solve this problem!

CENIT@EA students formed a team with GIZ experts from Tanzania, Kenya and Morocco to submit an innovative solution for road safety to the GIZ Innovation Fund 2020. The innovation scored the 1^st place in the Community Voting among almost 100 submitted ideas.

The team is going to develop a Drowsiness Detector using an Infrared Camera that scans the driver’s pupil dilation and head motion and uses Artificial Intelligence to determine whether the driver is drowsy or not. The aim is to develop an inclusive low-cost gadget to serve the community and avoid as many road accidents as possible. Therefore, the detector will be placed in public service vehicles and not only send signals to the driver and the passengers in the vehicle, but also alert the school, public transportation authority or company.

This innovation makes it possible to the detect a sleepy or drunk driver even before it comes to dangerous steering behavior. Infrared technology allows functionality in case of a driver wearing glasses and during night, which is when most road accidents occur.

The team has been directly admitted to the Accelerator and will receive professional coaching and a budget of EUR 20,000 to develop and test the idea further. Finally, it will be pitched to the GIZ Management Board in December this year.