Real-time Nonintrusive Detection of Driver Drowsiness

Driver drowsiness is one of the major causes of serious traffic accidents, which makes this an area of great socioeconomic concern. Continuous monitoring of drivers' drowsiness thus is of great importance to reduce drowsiness-caused accidents. This proposed research developed a real-time, nonintrusive driver drowsiness detection system by building biosensors on the automobile steering wheel and driver's seat to measure driver's heart beat signals. Heart rate variability (HRV), a physiological signal that has established links to waking/sleepiness stages, is analyzed from the heat beat pulse signals for the detection of driver drowsiness. The novel design of measuring heat beat signal from biosensors on the steering wheel means this drowsiness detection system has almost no annoyance to the drivers, and the use of a physiological signal can ensure the drowsiness detection accuracy.