Zanrichvan Rensburg, a 2016 final year Engineering student at the North West University, has come up with a solution to address the problem of car accidents caused by driver drowsiness.
In 2014, 846 fatalities (2,6% of all fatalities) recorded in the US were drowsy-driving-related.
Manufacturers of luxury vehicles have tried to address this problem by means of expensive embedded systems. However, there is still a need for an effective, inexpensive system to determine and address the issue of driver drowsiness.
Van Rensburg developed image processing software that can detect driver drowsiness. The software can be loaded on to a smartphone for easy use.
The analysisis done through a low-resolution video, resulting in an algorithm that is validated by means of electrocardiograph (ECG) measurements.
The software combines the percentage closure of the driver’s eyes with the driver’s heart rate in order to determine the state of the driver.
Should the system detect a certain level of drowsiness an alarm on the smartphone is activated to notify the driver. A number of text messages can also be sent out automatically to pre-programmed numbers, in order to prompt family members or friends to check on the driver.
Van Rensburg comments: “This was a great project to work on. Driver drowsiness is a real issue in our society and hopefully this project is a step in the right direction of finding a cost effective solution.”