Abstract
Keywords automobile, drowsiness detection, FPGA design, real-time, low-cost
Abstract
In this work the most recent advances in digital image processing techniques have been used to make vehicle drivers face analysis by detecting symptoms of tiredness and distraction in order to prevent sudden risk situations.
The results of many studies show that a large number of car or trucks accidents can be avoided by detecting real-time physical and psychological states of the drivers in normal driving conditions. There are three main objectives in this design: To detect the driver eyelid movements, to detect the number of frames the driver has his eyes closed and to detect when the driver turns right or left (or bows) his head for a long time. Thus, several well known algorithms have been used and optimised for this field of application, such as spatial and temporal filtering, motion detection, optical flow analysis, etc.
The integration of electronic and/or microelectronic systems in the automobile is growing and, in general, has been demanding much support from computer-aided systems. In fact, there have been many attempts to achieve reliable real-time vehicle driver surveillance systems.
However, todays configurable hardware technology and Digital Signal Processors (DSP), both are able to support tasks with very high computational load, such as image processing. In this work, two low-cost real-time solutions have been achieved: The first one based on the FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) technology and the second one based on the TMS320C6711@150MHz DSP from Texas Instruments. Moreover, all the laboratory experiments are being carried out on real automobiles. We believe that the FPGA implementation could be the starting point to complete commercial systems due mainly to its flexibility, its portability, its reliability and, of course, its very low-cost.
As a result of the above explained, these kinds of systems should be available world-wide in a short-time, because its significance to the progress of automotive engineering and its contribution to reduce drastically the large number of car or trucks accidents caused by driver tiredness and distraction.