Denso unveils drowsiness monitor for drivers

Driving outstation can be quite a tiring experience, especially if you travel alone. This usually results in a long and boring drive and usually along the way you start to feel a little drowsy. This can prove to be rather dangerous as you may accidentally nod off at the wheel and swerve out of your lane and into oncoming traffic. Denso has come up with a new solution that will help analyze whether the driver is drowsy.

Unlike other monitoring systems used by other car manufacturers that take into account of external car behavior, i.e. the swerving of the vehicle, to determine whether the driver is falling asleep behind the wheel, Denso instead relies on an in-car detection system that analyzes 17 points on the driver’s face thanks to a camera mounted on the steering column.

It uses custom software to help determine the driver’s alertness on a scale of one to six, and depending on how alert the driver is, the system can inform the driver at early levels that they might be feeling sleepy or tired and advise them to pull over for a quick rest before resuming their journey.

Interested in seeing this technology implemented in cars in the future? Unfortunately it appears that Denso has not decided on when they will commercialize this system, so in the mean time we suggest that if you feel drowsy while driving, it’s probably a good idea to pull over for a quick rest!

Tyler Lee
Categories: Concepts, Transportation
Tags: facial recognition