Monitoring their car's tire pressures has allowed the world's top race teams to achieve peak performance and analyze potential tire problems before low air pressure could cause an accident or strand their driver by the side of the track. Tire pressure monitoring systems provide an early warning that allows simple problems to be corrected before they become catastrophes. Today you can have that same type of information in your vehicle with Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMSs). While it continues to serve as an early warning device that continually checks tire pressure while the vehicle is being driven, they are even more adaptable than the original system to better meet the needs of more vehicles, by alerting drivers to small air pressure leaks, before they can become big problems. So whether you drive around town, on the highway, or at the track, the TPMSs will warn you of air pressure loss. Additionally, TPMSs help ensure that you drive on properly inflated tires thus maximizing performance, fuel economy and tire life. And this system can even help protect low profile tires mounted on large diameter wheels by identifying a drop in air pressure long before it becomes visually apparent.
By Gene Frantz, Texas Instruments Smart, programmable cameras with a high degree of analytical intelligence will be the workhorses that enable the next generation of applications for the security and automotive markets to name just a couple. The technology will be in place. Are we ready for it as human beings?