Human error is the cause of most car accidents. To prevent accidents caused by fatigue, inattentiveness, and distractedness, the latest cars models come with a built-in driver monitoring system that assists the driver in reaching their destination safely.
The system’s purpose is to look for any signs of fatigue, distraction, anger or similar states in order to trigger the appropriate safety measures when necessary. The monitoring includes detecting where the driver’s head is, where they are looking, whether they are drowsy, etc. The mail goal is to ensure that the driver is focused on the driving.
The combination of head tracking and gaze tracking allows the system to determine the driver’s viewing direction and attention level. For example, if the driver is tired or intoxicated, it typically manifests with head dropping down, closed or barely-open eyes and sudden head movements as they’re trying to stay awake. The driver can also get distracted by their phone, traffic, or something that’s happening in the car (for example, a heated discussion with other passengers). This means that the driver’s focus is no longer on the road ahead, which increases the chances of an accident. In such cases, the system can warn the driver and help bring their attention back to the road.
Besides the driver, it's useful to detect other passengers in the vehicle as well to confirm the total number of passengers. Furthermore, FaceAnalysis can be used to provide demographic information (age, gender) of everyone in the vehicle. Such information is valuable in case of an emergency, but it can also help increase the general safety of the passengers (for example, it can warn the parents about a child being left unattended in the vehicle).
FaceAnalysis can also estimate emotions of the driver and the passengers. For example, it can detect “undesirable” emotions such as anger in order to take necessary safety measures such as playing relaxing music or slowing the car down.
Many other useful functionalities can be based on face recognition. For example, only the verified persons can get access rights, which prevents car theft. The system can also remember someone’s preferences and restore them when an authenticated person enters the car. For example, the car can automatically adjust the seat, modify the position of mirrors, turn on the driver’s favorite music and more.
Finally, it’s possible to customize car preferences based on different drivers who are all designated to drive the specific vehicle. This relates to adjusting view mirrors, seat, radio station, car settings. Furthermore, car settings such as content recommendations, lighting or heating, can be personalized to the driver’s or passengers’ moods and states.
Driver monitoring systems play a huge role in the transition from manual to (semi)autonomous driving. To truly minimize the work for the driver and maximize safety at the same time, they need to be based on reliable software. Vehicle manufacturers choose visage|SDK because it combines face tracking, analysis and recognition, making it easy to develop a comprehensive solution.
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