The Driver Monitoring System (DMS) is an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based vehicle safety technology that monitors the driver’s attentiveness through a camera. Its purpose is to identify the driver and detect his/her levels of vigilance through software and alert him/her in cases of drowsiness, distractions, etc. to avert accidents.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), millions of people die every year, the world over, due to road accidents. And in most cases, it is the driver’s fault that leads to such fatal crashes with drowsiness, fatigue and distractions being the most common risk factors. In such dire situations, where the safety of millions of lives is at stake, a system to keep track of the driver’s behavior is a blessing in disguise.

Features of DMS

A camera placed on the steering column of the vehicle captures multiple movements and features of the driver through in-built sensors. The DMS core engine system analyzes the driver’s behavior based on the image captured and detects he/she is alert, drowsy or distracted. The system is also equipped to detect the number of times the driver yawns or blinks or even if he/she looks elsewhere. The main features of DMS are:

• Driver ID
• Distraction detection
• Drowsiness detection
• Specific activity detection
• Eyeblink detection
• Emotion recognition
• Eyeball tracking

Drowsiness detection

The system first detects specific facial landmarks from a cropped image of the face followed by a 68-point landmark detection process. Based on the eye and mouth landmark points, it then calculates the applicable aspect ratios. It detects eye blinks, yawns or microsleeps using the ratios. Finally, based on their frequency and duration, the system comes up with a drowsiness score.

Distraction detection

On the lines of drowsiness detection, the system estimates yaw, pitch, roll (YPR) of the face based on the cropped images using the ‘head pose estimation’. The YPL value is calculated when the driver is attentive and looking straight (reference YPL) and when he/she is driving (actual YPL). The two values are compared to decide whether the driver is distracted or not.

Benefits

A technology that detects the driver’s attentiveness and alerts him/her is a major milestone in the world of semi-autonomous vehicles to prevent road accidents and deaths. The DMS alerts the driver to ensure he/she doesn’t fall asleep or get distracted during driving. In addition, the DMS allows remote monitoring of the driver. For fleet management organizations, the system can help monitor the effectiveness and safety of its drivers from a remote location and alert them if the need arises.

Driver monitoring system is still on a growth path and, with technological advancements, more sophisticated features are on the cards. The system is likely to come up with functions that will support in identifying more features related to ‘focus’, driver-centric activities and emotion recognition. If you are interested in knowing more about the system and how MulticoreWare is working to come up with many advanced technologies, please reach out to us for detailed know-how.