Driver Impairment Detection via Reflex Response Time Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional technologies for determining a driver's state, such as drowsy driving, fail to detect impaired drivers who show no changes in eye or mouth shapes, leading to potential traffic accidents.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that determine a driver's impaired state by analyzing their reflex response time based on vehicle behavior, using a face tracking device to detect face coordinates and direction vectors, and an event detecting device to identify valid vehicle behaviors, calculating variance values of direction vectors to assess reflex response time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional face shape analysis methods are used to detect drowsy driving, then drowsy drivers can be identified, but impaired drivers who show no eye or mouth shape changes cannot be detected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the detection parameter from static face shape features (eye/mouth shape) to dynamic temporal features (reflex response time). By measuring the time duration of facial responses to vehicle events before and after impairment, the system can detect impaired drivers regardless of whether their eyes or mouths show visible changes, thus resolving the contradiction between detection accuracy and detection coverage
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a temporal dimension to the detection by measuring the duration of facial responses over time. Instead of only analyzing spatial features (eye/mouth shape), the system measures the time it takes for facial features to respond to and recover from vehicle events, creating a new detection dimension that works for both drowsy and impaired drivers
2Measurement precision
If face tracking is performed continuously at high sampling rates to accurately measure reflex response time, then detection accuracy improves, but computational complexity and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates and stores baseline reflex response times for each driver during normal driving conditions. When an event occurs, the system only needs to compare the current response time against the pre-stored baseline, avoiding the need for complex real-time analysis and reducing computational complexity while maintaining measurement precision
Solution Approach 2:
The system focuses computational resources only on analyzing facial responses during and immediately after specific vehicle events rather than continuously analyzing all facial movements. This partial action approach reduces processing complexity while capturing the critical information needed for accurate impaired driver detection
Data Source
AI summary
A system for determining a state of a driver includes a face tracking device configured to detect coordinates and a direction vector of a face at intervals of a sampling time from a face image of the driver, an event detecting device configured to detect valid behavior of a vehicle as an event, and a determination device configured to determine an impaired state of the driver based on a reflex response time of the driver when the event is detected by the event detecting device.