Monitoring driver fatigue using facial analysis techniques

In this paper, we describe a non-intrusive vision-based system for the detection of driver fatigue. The system uses a color video camera that points directly towards the driver's face and monitors the driver's eyes in order to detect micro-sleeps (short periods of sleep). The system deals with skin-color information in order to search for the face in the input space. After segmenting the pixels with skin like color, we perform blob processing in order to determine the exact position of the face. We reduce the search space by analyzing the horizontal gradient map of the face, taking into account the knowledge that eye regions in the face present a great change in the horizontal intensity gradient. In order to find and track the location of the pupil, we use gray scale model matching. We also use the same pattern recognition technique to determine whether the eye is open or closed. If the eyes remain closed for an abnormal period of time (5-6 sec), the system draws the conclusion that the person is falling asleep and issues a warning signal.