Detecting Driver Fatigue Through the Use of Advanced Face Monitoring Techniques

Driver fatigue is an important factor in many vehicular accidents. Reducing the number of fatigue-related accidents would save society a significant amount financially, in addition to reducing personal suffering. The researchers developed a driver fatigue monitoring system that uses a camera (or cameras) to detect indications of driver fatigue. The mechanism detects and tracks the eyes of the driver based on human skin color properties, along with templates that monitor how long the eyes are open or closed. Tests of the approach were run on 20 human subjects in a simulated environment (the driving simulator at the Human Factors Research Laboratory) in order to find its potential and its limitations. This report describes the findings from these experiments.