Multi Modal Driver Distraction and Fatigue Detection/Warning System (MDF)

Fatigue and distraction are among the major risk factors associated with Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) crashes. For this effort, Intelligent Automation, Inc. (IAI) team proposes to develop an innovative solution called Multi-Modal Driver Distraction and Fatigue Detection/Warning System (MDF). MDF consists of four major modules: (1) Driver behavioral based measurements: such as measuring driver pose and psychophysiological measures of alertness (e.g. Percentage of eye closure-PERCLOS, Average eye closure speed-AECS), detecting yawning and gestures. (2) Driving style based measurements: detecting erratic inter/intra-lane driving, and erratic speed variations based on yaw rate sensor and/or Controller area network (CAN) bus signals. (3) Physiological sensing: leverage recent advances in physiological sensing (like heart rate, sleep and activity monitoring) using wearable devices. (4) Sensor fusion, Recording, Warning and Individualization module that manages the inputs from the other modules and takes appropriate action and issues warning when necessary. MDF provides innovative yet practical, fast yet reliable, detection of driver distraction and fatigue under a wide variety of operating conditions. By fusing different modalities of sensor information, MDF will work for different drivers with different physiological features and provide unique and customized feedback.